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PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Phillip Brashear excused himself from the
room while event attendees watched a 2007 video of his father, late
U.S. Navy Master Diver Carl Brashear, as he drove the Firestorm 30
Fire Boat named in his honor. It is just one of several namesakes
bestowed in Brashear's honor, and memories the U.S. Army reserve
chief warrant officer four shared during the Naval Surface Warfare
Center Panama City Division 2013 Black History Month celebration
held in Panama City, Fla., Feb. 5, 2013.
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Army helicopter pilot and the esteemed son
of legendary Navy master diver, Master Chief Carl Brashear, Chief
Warrant Officer 4 Phillip M. Brashear is presented with an
appreciation plaque for serving as keynote speaker the Naval Surface
Warfare Center Panama City Division's 2013 Black History Month
Observance ceremony on February 5, 2013. Standing left to right are:
African-American/Black Employment Program Manager Dr. Jermaine
Kennedy; NSWC PCD Commanding Officer Capt. Scott Pratt; Chief
Warrant Officer 4 Phillip M. Brashear; Navy Experimental Diving Unit
Commanding Officer Capt. Keith Lenhardt; and Naval Support Activity
Panama City Commanding Officer Cmdr. Anthony J. Anglin. (Photo by
Jonathan Gibson)
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Another memory Chief Warrant Officer 4 Phillip Brashear
shared was his father's belief that “speeches were for
general officers, and politicians” and therefore Brashear
did not write a speech but spoke directly “from the heart.”
Rather, he eloquently wove an uplifting message of
perseverance, and belief in “something greater than
ourselves” into his appearance at the Bay County U.S. Navy
base.
“My
father never allowed us to use the words ‘I can't' in our
house when we were growing up. We always had to try and if
we failed, that's OK, as long as we tried,” he said. “My
father grew up poor, joined the Navy, got an education and
beat alcoholism. If my dad can beat that, then you have no
excuse.”
It's that same message that got Brashear
through a tour in Iraq as a helicopter pilot in 2006, and
the same message he relayed to U.S. Navy sailors on Feb. 4,
2013, during a visit to Naval Diving and Salvage Training
Center also in Panama City, Fla.
“There are white
people in this room that are not responsible for slavery,
but their debt to society is to ensure it never happens
again. My dad and other people like him opened the doors for
us to go through today. I wouldn't be here without the
Tuskegee Airmen,” said Brashear. “My father put Little
Creek, Va., and Panama City Beach, Fla., on the map. These
are the places his career endured and his legacy lives on
stronger here today where you're preparing future divers.”
Brashear talked about his father's youth as a poor,
uneducated child who grew up not far from his mother, who
was highly educated, his father's ‘can do' attitude and how
he preferred the use of the word disabled over handicapped.
He also unveiled the Hollywood curtain and dispelled a few
truthful theatrical inaccuracies of his father's life
depicted in “Men of Honor.”
“Being the son of Carl
Brashear has been a trip. I lived like any other kid,” he
said, as he paused to praise military wives. “There were
three things he shared with me to be a viable citizen in our
society: One, we have to work for substance. Two, get an
education and that never stops. Three, believe in something
greater than yourself. We have to give young people these
values. My father is being honored during Black History
Month, but we still have a lot in this country to
accomplish.”
Brashear has followed in his father's
footsteps, not as a U.S. Navy diver, rather as a service
member passionate and grateful about his career.
In
September 1981, Brashear enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves
and served as an engine mechanic at VAW-78 on E-2B and E-2C
Hawkeye aircraft. In 1985, he became a RH-53D Sea Stallion
helicopter air crewman at HM-18 where he served until
September 1989, but it was becoming a pilot that he dreamed
about.
“Flying on the back of Navy helicopters was
great but I really wanted to fly, but I didn't have a
degree,” he said. “I talked with an Army National Guard
recruiter who said if I joined them, they'd sent me to
flight school, so I left the Navy and joined the Virginia
Army National Guard.”
In 1991, Brashear graduated
from the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Flight School Program as
a qualified UH-1 helicopter pilot.
In January 1994,
he was assigned as a National Guard Technician in Sandston,
Va., from April 1994 to May 2001. It was during this time
Brashear realized his parent's mantra of furthering
education and he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in
organizational management development from Bluefield
College.
Between October 2001 and April 2002,
Brashear deployed in support of Stabilization Force Ten in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and in 2005, served as a Blackhawk Test
Pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard and from January
2006 to February 2007, he deployed to combat again in
support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Halfway through
his tour in Iraq, Brashear received a Red Cross message that
his father was in the Portsmouth Naval Hospital and was
gravely ill. For five days, Brashear sat with him, picked
him up while nurses changed bed linens, and embraced each
moment of his father's last days.
“I thought he was
going to walk out of the hospital. That Tuesday afternoon, I
held his hand as the last breath left his body,” he said.
Brashear returned to duty in theater and, in 2007,
he retired from the U.S. Army National Guard and then joined
the U.S. Army reserves in April 2009 where he began to fly
the Army's CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
“I still love
flying today,” Brashear said.
As Brashear continues
to share his father's story of unity in his role as the Carl
Brashear Foundation president, he also serves as a UH-60
Weapon System Support manager at Defense Logistics Agency in
Richmond, Va., and serves as a U.S. Army reserve helicopter
pilot stationed in Ft Eustis, Va.
By Jacqui Barker, Naval Surface Warfare Center
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
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