DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Basil Plumley, Army veteran of 3 wars, dies at 92

RIP to an American hero

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/11/basil-plumley-army-veteran-of-three-wars-dies-at-92/

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley, who fought in some of the U.S. Army's bloodiest battles in three wars, died Wednesday in Columbus, Georgia. He was 92.

Plumley saw action in some of the largest battles of World War II, including the Battle of Normandy, the Battle of Salerno in Italy and Operation Market Garden.

He then fought in the Korean War, but it was his role in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam that brought him the most fame. The battle was chronicled in the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," which was later a 2002 movie starring Mel Gibson. Sam Elliott played Plumley.


Plumley, along with Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, led the Army's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in the November 1965 battle that saw 450 U.S. forces face off against 2,000 troops from the North Vietnamese army in the first major engagement between the two armies. More than 230 U.S. troops were killed.


"That was a long day. I was the second one in and next to the last to leave," Plumley was quoted as saying by The Bayonet in 2010 when he donated a large print of himself and Moore in Vietnam to the National Infantry Museum.

"Command Sgt. Maj. Plumley was a true American hero who spent much of his life placing his nation and its greatest ideals ahead of his own well-being," Maj. Gen. Anthony Ierardi, commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, said in a statement Wednesday. "He served with great valor and distinction in three wars and continued to mentor soldiers and leaders well after his retirement from active duty. The command sergeant major touched countless lives in his more than 30 years in the Army."

Plumley joined the Army on March 31, 1942, and retired on December 31, 1974.

His Army awards included the Silver Star with one oak leaf cluster and the Bronze Star with one oak leaf cluster.

At a reunion of Ia Drang veterans this year in Columbus, Plumley talked about the troops he helped lead, according to a report on the U.S. Army's website.

"That battalion was the best trained, in good physical shape and most disciplined that I've ever seen," he said. "We did real hard training at Fort Benning before we went into X-Ray. … But that battalion was made up of hard, disciplined, well-trained and well-commanded soldiers who didn't give a damn how rough their training is as long as you're fair about it. I was glad to have been a member of it."



Plumley was a larger-than-life figure, who had the respect of those on the battlefield, according to Joe Galloway, a reporter who was at Ia Drang and later wrote "We Were Soldiers" along with Moore. At the May reunion, he told of the scene when Plumley showed up at another Ia Drang vets reunion years earlier.

"It was up in the hospitality room, and everybody's had a few pops. All of a sudden, Sgt. Maj. Plumley arrives, steps in the door," Galloway said. "And I saw guys who had served a two-year draftee tour in the Army and had been out for 25 or 30 years, turn white, backs against the wall. As the sergeant major made his way into the room, they made their way along the wall and out the door. They were afraid he still had their name and number."

Plumley died of colon cancer, the Army statement said.

Wow, when I read about people that serve our country like the Sgt Mjr, it leaves me speachless, and I'm greatful for his service. R.I.P. Sgt Mjr. Pumley.

RIP CSM Plumley

Wow, he truly was an American hero.

RIP Basil Plumley. You have my respect and thanks, and those of a grateful nation.

It is sad to see the members of our greatest generation fading out daily. Soon they will all be gone. I hope that we can one day remember some of the lessons that they taught in the ways they lived their lives ...... the value of a stable family ...... willingness to work any job to support one's family ......to work hard to get what one wants ........... and so on.

Unfortunately, it seems that we have lost many of these values today.

They will very soon be all gone. In the hospital I work at, we've gotten quite a few WWII vets in their last years as patients....and most are willing to talk about their experiences. This one gentleman was a ball turret gunner, and he really had some stories to tell. My old neighbor was a highly decorated marine who saw a lot of action in the Pacific, and I never new it until I read his obit a few years ago. I fear a lot of stories and acts of heroism will die with these brave soldiers.

RIP, Sergeant Major Plumley.

RIP my brother !