Get to Know an American Hero

On Thursday, the USNS CARL BRASHEAR will be christened and launched into the San Diego Harbor, becoming the 7th ship of LEWIS AND CLARK (EXPLORER) or T-AKE Class vessels to be launched. Her mission will be to provide underway replenishment (UNREP) to the Navy fleet in way of ship fuel, jet fuel, repair parts, food, ammo... virtually anything our forces afloat would need to carry out its task.

The vessel’s namesake entered the U.S. Navy in 1948 leaving Kentucky and sharecropping and in 1954 became the first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Navy Diving and Salvage School.

In 1966, during recovery operations to locate and retrieve a lost hydrogen bomb off the coast of Spain, a towing line broke loose, causing a pipe to strike Brashear’s left leg below the knee, nearly shearing it off.

After persistent infections and necrosis, Brashear convinced his doctors to amputate the lower portion of his leg.

After 2 years of vigorous rehab, Brashear became the first amputee to be certified as a Navy diver and in 1970, he became the first African-American U.S. Navy Master Diver. Brashear served 10 more years attaining the rank of Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate in 1971.

Brashear passed in 2006 and his military service documenting his courage and persistence in the face of racism and obvious physical limitations was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the film, Men of Honor.

The following are some shots of the CARL BRASHEAR on the day before her launch. (As always, click to enlarge).


Nice look at the bow section of the ship. The yard here in San Diego is the last yard in the States to do end launches of its new-build vessels (meaning the ship is built on the dry ground of building ways and made waterborne by sliding down the inclined ways into the water, stern end first.).






That’s Lauren Brashear in the gold hat, granddaughter of Carl, taking some practice swings with a dummy champagne bottle on the christening stand at the bow of the ship. Tomorrow is Loren’s big day so you don’t want to take any chances.








A look at the aft poppets that support the weight of the ship back aft on the sliding ways. During the week of the launch, the weight of the ship is slowly transferred from the stationary blocking and stanchions to the sliding ways. Those cables, or tricing lines you see, keep the sliding ways secured to the ship. During the launch evolution, the sliding ways will slide over the stationary ground ways aided by animal lard to reduce friction.



Workers pose for a shot back aft by the propeller and rudder. A lot of hard work and back-breaking labor goes into these launch evolutions and everybody gets into the spirit of the occasion by memorializing this unique event. You get a look at the port and starboard side sliding ways. And note the “lock” at the top, aft end of the rudder that secures it to the rudder horn. This prevents the rudder from moving and thus prevents the ship from swerving to port or starboard once she hits the water.


A look at the gate or “caisson”. There are two valves in the caisson, itself, that are opened several hours before the launch that allow the bay water to flow into the launch ways area. Once the water is equalized on both sides of the gate, the caisson is removed and set to the side. There are two “plug” pieces that can be seen in the middle of the picture. These pieces are set in where the caisson was to provide continuity to the ways that continue on for another 100 ft. beyond the caisson and into the bay.


The gentleman in the blue hat and aqua shirt is Robert DeNiro, who played Leslie William “Billy” Sunday, a fellow diver and a source of inspiration for Brashear. We stumbled onto DeNiro’s tour group quite by accident as we were trekking around the ways one last time before heading home. We were too embarrassed to take DeNiro’s picture so we had the Yard's official photographer, “Kenny” take it for us.

This has all been a lot of hard work but rewarding also, so we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow.

Out.