He was a
soldier combat infantryman
once, er,
twice, no, make that three times, and young.
No, he was just three times the soldier any of us was or is. I would put the Auld Soldier in a class with LTG (R) Hal Moore, who was CSM Plumley's battalion commander in the Ia Drang, but Plumley towers over them.
Command Sgt. Maj. Plumley fought in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam and made five parachute jumps into combat. Friends said he never told war stories and was known to hang up on people who called to interview him. ... “He’s iconic in military circles,” Camp said. “Among people who have been in the military, he’s beyond what a movie star would be. . . . His legend permeates three generations of soldiers.” He was a native of Shady Spring, W.Va., and enlisted in the Army in 1942. He ended up serving 32 years in uniform. In World War II, he fought in the Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno and the D-Day invasion at Normandy. He later fought with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment in Korea. In Vietnam, he served as sergeant major with the 7th Cavalry Regiment. “That puts him in the rarest of clubs,” said journalist Joseph L. Galloway, who met Command Sgt. Maj. Plumley while covering the Vietnam War for United Press International and remained lifelong friends with him. “To be combat infantry in those three wars, in the battles he participated in, and to have survived — that is miraculous.” In November 1965, Command Sgt. Maj. Plumley served in the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam, the first major engagement between the U.S. Army and North Vietnamese forces.
The Sergeant Major would have been a legend among us soldiers, regardless. But Hal Moore and Joe Galloway writing
We Were Soldiers Once, and Young, and then Mel Gibson turning it into a movie made the Sergeant Major a proper legend outside the Army, too.
There were many brave men in the Ia Drang that day.
Majors Ed Freeman and Bruce Crandall, and a young
Lieutenant Rick Rescorla. When Moore and Galloway pass on, there's going to be a raucous party at the
LZ X-Ray table at Fiddler's Green.
Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance -
in memoriam of CSM Basil Plumley , an exemplar of what an infantryman should be.
Read the complete post at http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2012/10/command_sergean.html
Posted
Oct 12 2012, 05:56 AM
by
Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys..