USNS ''Carl Brashear'' (T-AKE-7) is a ''Lewis and Clark''-class

dry cargo ship A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, named in honor of Master Chief Boatswain's Mate

Carl Brashear Carl Maxie Brashear (January 19, 1931 – July 25, 2006) was a United States Navy sailor. He was a master diver, rising to the position in 1970, despite having his left leg amputated in 1966. The film '' Men of Honor'' was based on his life. E ...

(1931–2006), one of the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

s to become a US Navy Master Diver, despite having lost a leg in the 1966 Palomares incident. The contract to build ''Carl Brashear'' was awarded to

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

National Steel and Shipbuilding Company National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is an American shipbuilding company with three shipyards located in San Diego, Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk and Mayport (Jacksonville), Mayport. It is a division of General Dy ...

(NASSCO) of

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, on January 11, 2005. Her keel was laid down on November 2, 2007. The completed ship was delivered to the Navy on March 4, 2009. During

Operation Tomodachi was a United States Armed Forces (especially U.S. Forces Japan) assistance operation to support Japan in disaster relief following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The operation took place from 12 March to 4 May 2011; involved 24,000 U ...

, ''Carl Brashear'' loaded more than 800 pallets of humanitarian cargo at Sasebo's Juliet pier on March 20 and set sail later that day to join the Navy ships operating off northern Japan. ''Brashear'' completed 17 underway replenishment missions, delivering more than 1 million gallons (3,800 m³) of fuel to ships supporting Tomodachi.

References

External links

* * Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ships Ships built in San Diego 2008 ships {{US-mil-ship-stub