Carl Maxie Broshir - life-long immersion

Carl Brashear (Carl Maxie Brashear) US military diver, the first African American graduates naval school divers and rescuers.



Broshir was born in 1931 in Toneville, Larue County, Kentucky, the son of sharecroppers and McDonald Gonçalo Broshir. He graduated from high school in Sonora Sonora, Kentucky, where he studied from 1937 to 1946. February 25, 1948 Broshir joined the naval forces of the USA, shortly after desegregation. In 1954 he graduated from the Naval School of divers and rescue workers, becoming a certified naval diver. Although he was not the first African-diver (know the names of three African-American divers during the Second World War), but he became the first black graduate of the Naval School of divers and rescuers. He also became the first lost his leg and then recertified naval diver.



In January 1966 there was an incident at Palomares, on the coast of Spain. Bomber B-52G Stratofortress Strategic Command US Air Force during an air refueling tanker aircraft collided with a KC-135 and was forced to make an emergency discharge B28 nuclear bomb in the sea. Carl Broshir was at this time aboard the USS Hoist (ARS-40), was ordered to find and pick up the lost bomb. The warhead was found after 2, 5 months of searching. March 23, 1966 during an operation to bomb the rise of an accident lift pipe Broshira hit in the leg below the knee, his leg was almost severed. He was sent to the air base in Torrejon (Spain), and from there transported to Wiesbaden, Germany, and in the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. Suffering from constant infections and necrosis, realizing that he was waiting for years of treatment and rehabilitation Broshir persuaded doctors to amputate the lower part of the leg.



Broshir remained in the hospital Portsmouth from May 1966 to March 1967 recuperating and recovering from amputation. From March 1967 to March 1968 Senior Chief Sergeant Broshir was assigned to the second port squad diving school, to prepare to return to service. In April 1968, after much difficulty, he became the first amputees certified as a diver. In 1970 he became the first black diver-master of the fleet, and then served another 10 years, in 1971 received the rank of master chief boatswain's mate. Subordinates remember Broshira expression: "Do not be ashamed to fall, not rise ashamed" and "I will not allow anyone to steal my dream».



In April 1979 Broshir retired with the rank of chief master sergeant (E-9) and a master diver. He then served as a civilian government at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1993 finally parted with military service with the rank of GS-11.



Carl Broshir died July 25, 2006 in the same naval hospital in Portsmouth, where he was treated for acute respiratory infections. The cause of death was a heart attack. He was buried in Woodlawn Memorial Gardens, Virginia.