Kids - Men of Honor

“It’s not a sin to get knocked down. It’s a sin to stay down.” - Carl Brashear

We watched a excellent movie this weekend called “Men of Honor” starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. inspired by the true story of Master Chief Petty Officer, Carl Brashear who was the first African-American master diver in the United States Navy.

In 1948 President Harry Truman issued an executive order ending the segregation of race in the United States Military in effect rescinding the segregation order of President Woodward Wilson in 1917. Carl Brashear enlisted in the Navy in 1948 but soon learned that racial hatred and bigotry is not easily erased with presidential executive orders. The movie displayed the ugliness of the Jim Crow laws but much more importantly the greatness of the human spirit.

"The Navy Diver is not a fighting man, he is a salvage expert. If it is lost underwater, he finds it. If it's sunk, he brings it up. If it's in the way, he moves it. If he's lucky, he will die young, 200 feet beneath the waves, for that is the closest he'll ever get to being a hero." – Billy Sunday

Below is the video clip of the theatrical trailer for “Men of Honor.”



Part of the movie involved a “Broken Arrow” incident. A “Broken Arrow” is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon.

On January 17, 1966, a United States Air Force bomber collided midair with a refueling aircraft resulting in thermonuclear hydrogen bomb becoming lost in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain near the town of Palomares. It took eighty days to find and retrieve the bomb at a depth of about 2,800 feet. Thirty three ships and Carl Brashear was very involved in the search and recovery operation.

Below is a link to a website dedicated to Carl Brashear who died in July 2006.
Carl Brashear Site

[Credit to 20th Century Fox and videopost DFKDFK11 ]