Master Chief Billy Sunday was in the movie Men of Honor.
Men of Honor is a 2000 American drama film starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr.George Tillman Jr. directed the film.Carl Brashear was the first African American master diver in the United States Navy.
Carl Brashear left his native Kentucky in 1948 to join the United States Navy.He is inspired by the bravery of one of the divers and is assigned to the galley on the ship.He is determined to overcome racism and become the first black American Navy diver.He arrives at the Diving and Salvage School in New Jersey as a boatswain's mate second class.The commanding officer of the school ordered Master Chief Sunday to make sure that Brashear fails.
Brashear left school in grade 7 in order to work on his family's failing farm, but he still struggles to overcome his educational deficiencies.His future wife is a medical student who works part-time in the New York Public Library.Brashear proves he is a diver when he rescues a fellow student from his dive buddy.Due to the racism of the commanding officer, the student who fled in the face of danger is awarded a medal for Brashear's heroic actions.Brashear's bag is cut open during an underwater assembling task where each student has to assemble a flange underwater using a bag of tools.Brashear finishes the assembly and graduates from diving school, earning quiet and suppressed admiration of Sunday and his fellow divers.Sunday was demoted to senior chief for standing up for Brashear.
Brashear and Sunday have different paths.Brashear became a national hero in 1966 when he recovered a missing hydrogen bomb and saved the lives of Navy crewmen.Sunday loses his cool when officers disrespect his accomplishments, until he is demoted to chief petty officer and assigned to menial duties.He became an alcoholic because of his lowered rank.
After Brashear's left leg was mangled in the Palomares incident, he feels that his only chance to return to active duty and a normal life is for the leg to be amputation.No Navy man had ever returned to active duty with a missing limb.In order to return to full active duty and fulfill his dream of becoming a master diver, Sunday once again trains Brashear and aids him in his fight against the Navy's bureaucracy.They succeeded in getting Brashear back.
Two years later, Brashear becomes a master diver.He won't retire from the Navy for another nine years.