Personal and Diving Experiences
According to Negro Enlisted Personnel Statistics there were a total of 17,940 enlisted African Americans. This census was taken February 1st, 1948. Brashear enlisted February 28, 1948. 27 days after the census was taken. In 1948 Whites made up 93.31% of the Navy, while Blacks only made up 4.91%.
While attending diving school in Bayonne, New Jersey, Brashear faced a good amount of racism. He found notes on his bunk saying, “We’re going to drown you today, nigger!” And, “We don’t want any nigger divers.” Showing a tremendous amount of fortitude at such a young age Brashear pushed on. He received encouragement to finish from First Class Boatswain’s Mate Rutherford in which Brashear went on to graduate 16 out of 17.
Brashear first did work as a diver retrieving approximately 16,000 rounds of ammunition that fell off 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.
Brashear was assigned to escort the presidential ship the Barbara Ann to Rhode Island. He met President Eisenhower and received a little knife that said, “To Carl M. 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.
Brashear on the responsibility of being Master Chief, “You have a tremendous amount of responsibility, too, because the welfare and lives of all those divers are in your hands. You’re supposed to have the expertise that you can look at a man, and know if there’s something on his mind that would mean he’s not supposed to dive. Or if he’s not acting himself, you’re supposed to question him and see if he’s in a frame of mind to dive. In other words, they’re just your children. You have to look out for them because they belong to you. When I was at the safety center, I have found on diving accidents that I’ve investigated that the guy shouldn’t have been diving because of his last night’s activities. But the master failed to think about them.”
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