"Carl Maxie Brashear"

Was a United States sailor.He was the first African American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diver,rising to the position in 1970.He was born on January 19,1931 in Tonieville,Kentucky,the sixth of eight children to sharecroppers Mcdonald & Gonzella Brashear.In 1935,the family,settled on a farm in Sonora,Kentucky.Carl attended Sonora Grade School from 1937-1946.Carl enlisted in the U.S. Navy on February 25,1948,shortly after the Navy had been desegregated by U.S. President Harry S.Truman.He graduated from the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954,becoming the first African American to attend and graduate from the Diving & Salvage School and the first African-American U.S. Navy Diver.While attending diving school in Bayonne,New Jersey,Carl faced hostility and racism.He found notes on his bunk saying,"we're going to drown you today,nigger!" and "We don't want any nigger divers." Carl received encouragement to finish from First Class Boatswain's Mate Rutherford,and graduated 16 out of 17.Carl first did work as a diver retrieving approximately 16,000 rounds of ammunition that fell of a barge which had broken in half and sunk to the bottom.On his first tour of shore duty in Quonset Point,Rhode island his duties included the salvaging of airplanes,including one Blue Angel and recovering multiple dead bodies.Carl assigned the presidential ship the Barbara Ann to Rhode Island.He met President Eisenhower and received a small knife that said,"To Carl Brashear.From Dwight D.Eisenhower,1957.Many, many thanks.After making chief in 1959 he stayed at Guam for three years doing mostly demolition dives.In January 1966,in an accident now known as the Palomares incident, a B28 nuclear bomb was lost of the cost of  Palomares,Spain after two United States Air Force aircraft of the Strategic Air Command (SAC),a B-52G Stratofortress bomber and a KC-135A Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft collided during aerial refueling.Maxi was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal- the highest Navy award for non-combat heroism.During the bomb recovery operations on March 23,1966,a lined used for towing broke loose,causing a pipe to strike Carl's left leg below the knee,nearly searing it off.He was evacuated to Torrejon Air Base in Spain,then to USAF hospital at Wiesbaden Air base,Germany; and finally to the Naval Hospital in Naval Hospital in Portsmouth,Virginia.Beset with persistent infection and necrosis,his left leg was eventually amputated.Carl remained at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth from May 1966 until March 1967 recovering and rehadilitating from the amputation.From March 1967 to March 1968,Carl was assigned to the Harbor Clearance Unit,two,Diving School,preparing for return to full active duty and diving.In April 1968,after a long struggle,he was the first amputee diver to be (re) certified as a U.S. Navy Diver.In 1970,he became the first African-American Navy Master Diver,and served ten more years beyond that,achieving the rating of Master Chief Boatswain's mate in 1971.Carl was motivated by his beliefs that "its not a sin to get knocked down;its a sin to stay down" and "I ain't going to let nobody steal my dream."BMCM(MDV) Carl retired from the U.S.Navy on April 1,1979 as a Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9) and Master Diver.He then served as a cavillan employee for the government at Naval Station Norfolk,Norfolk Virginia and retired in 1993 with the grade of GS-11.