 My dad's famous saying is it's not a sin to get knocked down. It's a sin to stay down My father was a great boxing fan. He loved boxing two men getting to a ring at some point One man may get knocked down the man that gets knocked down has to find the courage the fortitude to get back up get in the fight I was coming from combat duty in Iraq when I got the Red Cross message that my father was critically ill. I Walked straight into my father's hospital room at the Postal Neighbor Hospital And having gone through combat. I was pretty beat up because of all the Situations that I was putting under so I walk into my father's room complaining. My father was actually on his death bed I didn't know at the time and he looks up at me and says son. What are you complaining about? I was doing my duty. I was healthy. I was strong He was on this death bed He would have traded place with me in a heartbeat in a few days after I've got to the hospital and spent time with him He died in my arms His body just gave up. He'd been through so much and he just couldn't suffer anymore. So he he left us My father was Carboshir a poor sharecropper son who joined the Navy The movement of honor is about my father who was able to overcome all types of challenges to become the first African-American diver in the United States Navy In 1966 there were two Air Force planes conducting refill operations off the coast of Spain Those two planes doing that operation collided and Dropped this payload my dad was dispatched as a Navy diver with his team to go over off the coast of Spain The tow line was pulled so tight that the pole off the ship was ripped off And as it slung across the deck with so much tension It caught the bottom part of my father's leg and nearly ripped it off right there aboard the ship They decided that they were going to amputate the leg because it was mutilated so bad from that shipboard accident The movie shows my father Donning the mark 5 diving suit 300 pounds of helmet breastplate weights and shoes They depict him having to do a 12-step maneuver across a floor wearing all of that weight That's a pretty light sentence for what my father actually had to go through It wasn't just walking 12 steps He had to do it daily for almost a year before the Navy finally decided he could be fit for active duty He overcame racism. My father overcame poverty He overcame illiteracy. He lost the bottom part of his leg and was physically disabled He overcame his alcoholism but took courage for him to admit he had a problem He did everything in the gym that any person with two good legs could do as a child seeing that It just made me feel like my father was bigger than life with that kind of influence There's no way you cannot pick up on it and want to be the best you can be My father wasn't the kind of person to let anything stop him My rock deployment was with the Army National Guard in the state of Virginia. Our mission was basically troop transport and Material movement we did that day in and day out under the constant barrage of seeing trace around IED explosions. I remember a lot of heat Constant heat felt like a blow dryer in your face. I remember the the constant thirst. I Remember the constant fear from getting that helicopter in a combat zone But one night we got a call that there was a flash flood and that there were some Marines lost on a trail Not too far from our base and I remember getting out a couple of times I would land my helicopter and help my crew chiefs retrieve those bodies that were caught in that flash flood That's one of the hardest things ever done in my life was to get out that helicopter and a combat operation Retrieve a dead American bring him back to safety so that family can have closure. I Retired after Iraq. I was sitting at home going through my father's stuff one day And I'm thinking to myself my father never quit anything in his life What gives me the right to quit just because my Iraq tool was pretty hard So I joined the armor reserve in 2009 already the reserve gave me the great opportunity Of being in command I never would have had that chance in the Army National Guard and the reserve just gave me a great Opportunity to be the leader being a war an officer so important in today's Army We have to be able to focus on both entities to support both enlisted and officers and be a cohort in ourselves As far as being able to be technically and proficiently sound in our job I feel blessed today that I have 38 years of service in the reserve and it's provided for my family It's provided for my children I have three grown daughters and a son now who's an ROTC student at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, North Carolina It's just a great legacy to have my father who's a Navy great legend and then myself a combat veteran in the army My son is going to be following our footsteps with leadership and service to our country a Swiss company Wanted to make a luxury watching under my father It's amazing that a Swiss company would take their time to honor a black man here in America On the back of every watch they have his famous saying it's not a sin to get knocked down It's a sin to stay down if there's an obstacle in the way you go around it You go underneath it you go above it or sometimes you just have to go through it But you don't let obstacles in life dictate your life. You choose to live your life