Son of Honor – 2015

By Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Eugene, 80th Training Command (TASS) Public Affairs

People don’t have to like you, but if you’re competent at your job then they have to respect you.

That’s the message Chief Warrant Officer Phillip Brashear wanted the Reserve Soldiers and civilians of the 80th Training Command (TASS) headquarters to walk away with, after he spoke to them in Richmond, Va., Feb. 20, 2015, as part of the unit’s Black History Month observance.

Brashear said, he strives to be the example set by his father Carl, who overcame racism and became the first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Diving and Salvage School, and the first African-American U.S. Navy master diver. He was also the first Navy diver to return to full active duty as an amputee after a shipboard accident in 1966 cost him his leg. He retired in 1979 at the top enlisted rank of master chief petty officer.

Cuba Gooding Jr., alongside Robert De Niro, portrayed the elder Brashear, who died in 2006 at age 75, in the movie “Men of Honor”.

“That’s what the movie portrays,” Brashear said. “It shows the two characters, Robert De Niro and my father, not liking each other because of race, but if you take all that away, at the end, my father proved that he was competent at his job and you saw where Robert De Nero’s character ended up respecting him for that.”

Brashear, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot, said he’s surprised that there are so few African-Americans in his career field.

“The opportunities are there, it’s nothing like what my dad went through,” said Brashear, who’s also a Reserve Soldier assigned to 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, General Support Fort Eustis, Va.

“My dad accomplished a lot in his life, but he never flew a helicopter,” Brashear jokingly told the audience during his presentation laced with humor coupled with his father’s positive approach to life.

For example, in 2006 Brashear returned from the Iraq war because his father was gravely ill.

“I was by his bedside telling him about how I was tired of being in Iraq, tired of seeing my buddies dying,” Brashear said. “My dad told me, ‘so what do you have to complain about?’

The message behind that statement was, “no matter how bad you think you have it, there are some who have it worse than you do,” said Brenda Dabney, the 80th TC’s health readiness coordinator.

Brashear said, one of his father’s most significant traits that the movie doesn’t reveal was his sense of humor.

“He only stood 5 feet 9 inches and I’m 6 feet 4 inches. I became taller than my dad when I was fifteen years old,” Brashear said. “I asked him, ‘dad why am I so tall and you’re so short?’ He said son before you came along I was out at sea a lot, so you better ask your mother.”

At the end of the presentation, Michael Bland, the 80th TC’s chief executive officer, reminded the audience that Brashear once flew a mission in support of the command’s Family Readiness office, but no one knew who he was.

“Well, in that case, I christen you an honorary member of the 80th Training Command,” said Maj. Gen. A.C. Roper, commander 80th TC, before presenting Brashear with his commander’s coin, a certificate of appreciation, and a book highlighting the 80th TC’s efforts supporting the Global War on Terror. “You’re living the legacy and blazing your own trail, and I know your dad was proud of you…not just in your everyday world as a Soldier, but as you spread those life lessons which are so important.”

“Honor, dignity, sacrifice,” Roper added. “All of that was wrapped in your dad and your family.”