Command Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley (1 January 1920 -- 10 October 2012), United States Army: Garry Owen

CSM Plumley

Reflecting on the news of the recent passing of Command Sergeant Plumley, I pulled down my copy of We Were Soldiers and turned to the index. I found the entry for Plumley, Sgt. Maj. Basil L. and, sitting down, read each entry in the book that mentioned his name. Here are its first and last entries. 

“Before taking command, I [then Lt. Col. Hal Moore speaking; the year was 1965] had a long talk with the most important man in any battalion: the sergeant major. Basil L. Plumley, forty-four years old and a six-foot-two-inch bear of a man, hailed from West Virginia. The men sometimes called him Old Iron Jaw, but never in his hearing. 

“Plumley was a two-war man and wore master parachutist wings with five combat-jump stars. He was what the young Airborne types call a four-jump bastard: Plumley had survived all four combat jumps of the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II: Sicily and Salerno in 1943, and then in 1944, D-Day at Normandy, and Market-Garden in the Netherlands. For that matter, he also made one combat parachute jump in the Korean War, with the 187thAirborne Infantry Regiment. He ended World War II a buck sergeant and was promoted to sergeant major in 1961.  

“The sergeant major was a no-bullshit guy who believed, as I did, in tough training, tough discipline, and tough physical conditioning. To this day there are veterans of the battalion who are convinced that God may look likeSergeant Major Basil Plumley, but He isn’t nearly as tough as the sergeant Major on sins small or large. Privately, I thanked my lucky stars that I had inherited souch a treasure. I told Sergeant Major Plumley that he had unrestricted access to me at any time, on any subject he wished to raise.”[1]

*** 

“PLUMLEY, Basil, seventy-two [it does not seem like it, but the book was published twenty years ago], the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry’s sergeant major, retired from the Army as a command sergeant major on December 31, 1974, after thirty-two years, six months, and four days on active duty, and a second tour in Vietnam with the U.S. Advisory Group, Pleiku. His awards include the Combat Infantryman’s Badge with two stars; two Silver Stars; two Bronze Stars; four Purple Hearts; a Master Parachutist Badge with five combat-jump stars; a European Theater Service ribbon with eight campaign stars and four invasion arrows; a Korean Service ribbon with three campaign stars and one invasion arrow; a Vietnam Service ribbon with one silver and three bronze campaign stars; and the Presidential Unit Citation badge. He worked an additional fifteen years as a civilian employee at Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning Georgia, and retired again in 990. He and his wife, Deurice, live in Columbus, Georgia, where he is president of the 1st Cavalry Division Association local chapter and an occasional quail hunter. Basil Plumley is a grandfather now, kind of soft-spolen, but do not be deceived: He is the lion in winter.”[2]

*** 

“CSM Plumley’s arrangements,” according to the Facebook page honoring retired Lt. Gen. Moore, are as follows. “Visitation is Monday from 10am to 8pm at Striffler Hamby on Macon Road in Columbus. The funeral service is on Tuesday at 1pm at the old Chapel at Fort Benning.”[3]

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[1] Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway, We Were Soldiers Once … and Young: Ia Drang-the Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam (New York: Harper Perennial, 1992), 20. 

[2] Ibid., 424-425. 

[3] http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lt-Col-Hal-Moore/59545011275.