Failure is not
the ability not to accomplish, but the inability to rise after falling. Such could have befallen Carl Brashear who was a cook in the US Navy (the best he could be
for being a Black American), but rose through the ranks and so much struggles
to achieve a feat even beyond dreams. We are meant to have setbacks and the Bible
even says, ‘man’s days are short and
full of troubles’. However, always remember the problems are not there to
limit you, break you down or stop you, but just like promotional exams, are
there to prepare you for the next level. It is now left to you to face it and
prove your ability and readiness for the greatness staring at you.
Carl Maxie
Brashear was born January 19, 1931
into a very poor family as portrayed in “Men
of Honor’. The family struggled through thick and thin to survive and that
was just one of the reasons for Carl Brashear
to fight hard and never give up. He planned to end his family’s poverty and
rewrite the name of the family; however, the dad never lived to see it happen.
Carl Brashear
was a Sailor at the United States Navy. Also, he became the first American to
serve as a US Navy Master Diver; a position he rose to in the 1970 after
getting his leg amputated. Him serving as the first entrants opened the door of
the US Navy to other blacks out there as master divers.
The Beginning
On February 25, 1948, Brashear applied to the US Navy and was
selected just when the Navy got desegregated by President Harry S. Truman of
the US. Even after the successful
selection of Carl Brashear to be admitted into the diving school, he still struggled
before he was allowed in; he had to stay at the school gate for morning and
night just because blacks disgust them. They don’t believe blacks can be
tantamount to anything and would not allow them close to any achievement. Despite
this, Carl Brashear was on his toes to success. All was on his heart was what
he wants to achieve and his eyes were fixed on what he would become. He only saw
the racism and discrimination as a distraction and was ready to sacrifice
everything about himself to achieve.
At the Diving School
When he was in the diving school in
Bayonne, New Jersey as a student, Brashear had a lot of challenges most
especially because he was black. He was disgusting to his colleagues and he
suffered hostility and racism at a very high level. One of the days in the diving school, some students colluded and
wrote on his bunk, ‘We're
going to drown you today, nigger!" and "We don't want any nigger divers’. Though the challenges were there, he never mind and
still continued to fight on so as to be successful in diving school. He
eventually succeeded with support and encouragement as a Boatswain’s Mate First
Class Rutherford and out of 17 students that graduated, he was among them.
Reward for not giving up
After Brashear graduated from the US Navy Diving and Salvage
School in 1954, he became the first African-American to study and graduate from
the school and also became the first ever African-American US Navy Diver.
The Setback
One of his days as a Navy Diver, March 23, 1966 to be specific at
a bomb recovery operations, a line that was used for towing broke loose which
was actually heading to destroy another person standing and watching, Brashear
ran at the person and pushed him away only for him to suffer a crushed leg when
a pipe struck his left leg just below the knee and was almost cut off.
He was immediately evacuated to the
Torrejon Air Base in Spain before forwarding to the USAF Hospital at Wiesbaden
Air Base in Germany and all had to end at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth,
Virginia. When there was persistent infection and necrosis on the leg, his
lower left leg had to be amputated (What a blow to his dream and his career!).
Carl Brashear using a support to train for the great '12 steps' after his leg got amputated
Never Give up
This particular incident brought a huge
setback to his career. Watching ‘Men of Honor’, Brashear was to
be forcefully ejected and retired from the US Navy because he could not use his
two legs again; however, he fought so hard not to let his dreams end there. He was
asked to take the first powerful steps under the cover of the future of sea diving
(290 pounds equipment). Brashear trained for days, he pressed himself,
sacrificed a lot, a lot of discouragements from people, the wife and those that
wanted him out of the Navy, however, he continued the struggle.
He was called upon and after struggling very
hard in court under the very heavy equipment which a full human being may not
even be able to lift a leg, Brashear successfully took the ‘most
important 12 steps’ in his life and that redefined his career.
Success ends every sad story
After a long and serious struggle, in April 1968, Brashear became
the first amputee diver in the US Navy as a diver to be recertified after he
lost his certification because of his leg that was amputated. Also in 1970, he
became the first ever African-American US Navy Master Diver, a post beyond the
reach of many Americans not to talk of the blacks. He later served nine more
years and got the rating of Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate in 1971.
One thing kept Brashear going
through his journey in the US Navy. He believed in himself and knew there is
something he did differently from others. Self-motivation was the key to
Brashear’s success. Though his dad gave him a radio when he was going to
the diving school and on it is the inscription, ‘ASNF’, which means ‘A
Son Never Forgets’. That moved him but not more than what he made up in his
mind that, ‘It's not a sin to get knocked down; it's a sin to stay
down" and "I ain't going to let nobody steal my dream’.
'So, don't stop trying, the next try
might just be the last and the best'.
Check this:
orcid.org/0000-0002-7574-6582
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