<p>This petition is to the Kentucky Veterans Administration and the commissioner. We the people of Kentucky would like to have the new Veterans Nursing Home located in Radcliff Kentucky named after Command Master Chief Carl Bashear. </p><p> Here is a little background on Command Master Chief Basher.</p><p><strong>Carl Maxie Brashear</strong> (January 19, 1931 – July 25, 2006) was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy">United States Navy</a> sailor. He was the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American">African American</a> to become a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Diver_(United_States_Navy)">U.S. Navy Master Diver</a>, rising to the position in 1970 despite also having an amputated left leg.</p><p>Brashear was born on January 19, 1931, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonieville,_Kentucky">Tonieville, Kentucky</a>, the sixth of eight children to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping">sharecroppers</a> McDonald and Gonzella Brashear.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-deatharticle-1">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-USNprofile-2">[2]</a> In 1935, the family settled on a farm in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora,_Kentucky">Sonora, Kentucky</a>. Brashear attended Sonora Grade School from 1937 to 1946.</p><p>Brashear enlisted in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Navy">U.S. Navy</a> on February 25, 1948, shortly after the Navy had been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desegregation">desegregated</a> by U.S. President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman">Harry S. Truman</a>. He graduated from the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American">African-American</a> to attend and graduate from the Diving & Salvage School and the first African-American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_Diver">U.S. Navy Diver</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-deatharticle-1">[1]</a></p><p>While attending diving school in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayonne,_New_Jersey">Bayonne, New Jersey</a>, Brashear faced hostility and racism. He found notes on his bunk saying, "We're going to drown you today, nigger!" and "We don't want any nigger divers." Brashear received encouragement to finish from First Class Boatswain's Mate Rutherford, and graduated 16 out of 17.</p><p>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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_Point,_Rhode_Island">Quonset Point, Rhode Island</a>, his duties included the salvaging of airplanes (including one Blue Angel) and recovering multiple dead bodies.</p><p>Brashear was assigned to escort the presidential ship the <em>Barbara Ann</em> to Rhode Island. He met President Eisenhower and received a small 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.</p><p>In January 1966, in an accident now known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Palomares_B-52_crash">Palomares incident</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B28_nuclear_bomb">B28 nuclear bomb</a> was lost off the coast of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomares,_Almer%C3%ADa">Palomares</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain">Spain</a> after two <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force">United States Air Force</a> aircraft of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Air_Command">Strategic Air Command</a> (SAC), a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-52_Stratofortress">B-52G Stratofortress</a> bomber and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC-135_Stratotanker">KC-135A Stratotanker</a> aerial refueling aircraft collided during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_refueling">aerial refueling</a>. Brashear was serving aboard <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hoist_(ARS-40)">USS <em>Hoist</em> (ARS-40)</a> when it was dispatched to find and recover the missing bomb for the Air Force. The warhead was found after two and a half months of searching.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-Oral_history-3">[3]</a> For his service in helping to retrieve the bomb, Brashear was later awarded the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_and_Marine_Corps_Medal">Navy and Marine Corps Medal</a> – the highest Navy award for non-combat heroism.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-4">[4]</a></p><p>During the bomb recovery operations on March 23, 1966, a line used for towing broke loose, causing a pipe to strike Brashear's left leg below the knee, nearly shearing it off.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-5">[5]</a> He was evacuated to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrejon_Air_Base">Torrejon Air Base</a> in Spain, then to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAF">USAF</a> Hospital at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiesbaden_Army_Airfield">Wiesbaden Air Base</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany">Germany</a>; and finally to the Naval Hospital in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth,_Virginia">Portsmouth, Virginia</a>. Beset with persistent infection and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrosis">necrosis</a>, his lower left leg was eventually amputated.</p><p>Brashear remained at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth from May 1966 until March 1967 recovering and rehabilitating from the amputation. From March 1967 to March 1968, Brashear was assigned to the Harbor Clearance Unit Two, Diving School, preparing for return to full active duty and diving.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-6">[6]</a> In April 1968, after a long struggle, Brashear was the first amputee diver to be (re)certified as a U.S. Navy diver.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-7">[7]</a> In 1970, he became the first African-American U.S. Navy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Diver_(United_States_Navy)">Master Diver</a>, and served ten more years beyond that, achieving the rating of Master Chief Boatswain's Mate in 1971.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-deatharticle-1">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-funeralarticle-8">[8]</a> Brashear was motivated by his beliefs that "It's not a sin to get knocked down; it's a sin to stay down" and "I ain't going to let nobody steal my dream".</p><p>BMCM (MDV) Brashear retired from the U.S. Navy on April 1, 1979 as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Chief_Petty_Officer">Master Chief Petty Officer</a> (E-9) and Master Diver. He then served as a civilian employee for the government at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Station_Norfolk">Naval Station Norfolk</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk,_Virginia">Norfolk, Virginia</a> and retired in 1993 with the grade of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Schedule#Military_rank_equivalency">GS-11</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear#cite_note-deatharticle-1">[</a></p>
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