Brashear struggles to overcome his educational shortcomings, a result of his 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 tool underwater using a bag of tools, but Sunday cut Carl's bag 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.
The paths and careers of both Brashear and Sunday sharply diverge as the former rises quickly through the ranks, even becoming a national hero in recovering a missing atomic bomb, while the latter becomes a brooding alcoholic and is reduced in rank from Master Chief to Chief Petty Officer. The two eventually meet again after Brashear loses his left leg in the atomic bomb incident and must fight the Navy in order to return to full active duty and fulfill his dream of becoming a master diver. They are successful and Carl becomes a master diver. Sunday however, drowns while attempting to save children from a lake in a deleted scene. Tagline: History is made by those who break the rules.
