All That And A Bag Of Chips. (546 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 1 review (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by David Jones <davjones.at.iastate.edu> (View user info) at 2004-09-22 23:34:14 EDT
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
I really did have aspirations of doing well in this contest.
Unfortunately I have had 3 tests and am in the process of writing my fourth paper in the time since I received my title. This was just a bad week, but I simply can not sacrifice my grades for this contest no matter how badly I may want to. So unless my opposition forfeits, good luck everyone, and apologies to any supporters I may have had.
In this small amount of time I have to spare for this I would just like to shed some spotlight on a man who truly is all that and a bag of chips. My roommates were watching Men of Honor while I was studying which reminded me of this incredibly bad ass person. For any of you who have not seen this movie I give it my full endorsement, go see it now, bitches. In fact, even if you have seen it go see it again. It is that damn good.
On to business...Carl Brashear, you sir, are a fucking god among men.
Just a short recap of the pinnacle of insanely amazing badassitude that this guy represents:
He joined the Navy in 1948; after 2 years of writing letters he was finally accepted as the first black man to enter naval diving training.
Despite extreme prejudice from his peers and commanding officers, and some serious foul play in attempts to keep him from passing his training he succeeded.
In 1966 he successfully found and helped the US Navy recover a rogue nuclear bomb from international waters, keeping it from Soviet hands. Unfortunately on this day his right leg was grievously injured as he saved 2 men from becoming cripples. Here is a direct quote from Carl himself:
"Then they were going to piece my leg back on and do plastic surgery. Well, they were going to make my leg three inches shorter than the other leg. When they took the bandage off, my foot fell off. So they tried again, and it would fall off. It got gangrene and got infected. Well, I was slowly dying from that. So they transferred me up to Wiesbaden, Germany. There the doctor said that he could fix me, but it would take three years and could have me walking on a brace. So I raised all sorts of hell in that hospital.
So he said, 'Well, do you want to be air-mailed out to the States?' That's the term he used. He said, 'Do you want to be air-mailed out to the States?'
I said, 'Yes, sir! Air-mail me out of here!'"
After this incident the Navy tried to force Carl to retire, but he would have none of it. He got a prosthetic leg, and went through some of the most vigorous physical trials imaginable on it to prove he wasn't done being godlike quite yet.
"Sometimes I would come back from a run, and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump. I wouldn't go to sick bay. In that year, if I had gone to sick bay, they would have written me up. I didn't go to sick bay. I'd go somewhere and hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it--an old remedy. Then I'd get up the next morning and run." - Carl Brashear
In 1979 he finally retired from the U.S. Navy as a master chief petty officer and master diver.
Fuck "be like Mike," I want to be like Carl Brashear. This guy ranks right up there with Lance Armstrong, and that guy who sawed of his own arm from under a boulder.
All that and a bag of chips, indeed.
For a complete interview with Carl: http://actionadventure.about.com/library/weekly/aa111700a.htm
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Submitted by youarsoghey (user info) at 2005-01-16 12:19:15 EST (#)
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