Men Of Honor

About Men Of Honor

Men of Honor (released in the UK as Men of Honour) is a 2000 drama film, directed by George Tillman, Jr. and starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. It is inspired by the true story of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, the first African-American Master Diver in the United States Navy.

Carl Brashear (Gooding Jr.) decides to leave his lifestyle in native Kentucky in 1948 and the life of a sharecropper by way of joining the United States Navy. As a crew member of the salvage ship USS Hoist (ARS-40), where he is assigned to the galley, he is inspired by the bravery of one of the divers, Master Chief Petty Officer Leslie William "Billy" Sunday (De Niro). He is determined to overcome racism and become the first ever African American Navy diver, even proclaiming that he will become a Master Diver. He eventually is selected to attend Diving and Salvage School in Bayonne, New Jersey where he arrives as a Boatswain's Mate Second Class. However, he finds that Master Chief Sunday is the Leading Chief Petty Officer and head instructor, who is under orders from the school's eccentric commanding officer to ensure that Brashear fails.

Brashear struggles to overcome his educational shortcomings, a result of him leaving school in the 7th grade in order to help his family's failing farm. He receives educational assistance from his future wife, an aspiring doctor, who works part time in the Harlem (New York City) Public Library. Brashear proves himself as a diver by rescuing a fellow student whose dive buddy abandoned him during a salvage evaluation that turns into a near disaster. Unfortunately, due to the prevailing racism of the commanding officer, the student who fled in the face of danger is awarded a medal for Brashear's heroic actions. After many more challenges — both mental and physical, including an underwater assembling task where each student had to assemble a flange underwater using a bag of tools, but Carl's bag is cut open. Yet, Carl, determined and confident, completes his challenge and successfully completes the diving school earning the quiet and suppressed admiration of Master Chief Sunday.