Csm plumley biography

Basil L. "Old Iron Jaw"Plumley
Command Sergeant Major, U.S. Army

Basil L. Plumley was born on 1 January 1920, in Shady Spring, WV, the second son, and fifth child, of coal miner Clay and Georgia Plumley. After two years of high school, he worked as a driver/chauffeur before enlisting in the U.S. Army on 31 March 1942.

A paratrooper, he was a member of the 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, with which he made four combat jumps and was awarded multiple medals. Plumley confirmed this during interviews conducted with author Phil Nordyke, author of four books relating to the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. Plumley went on to make one combat jump in Korea with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment.

As a career soldier and airborne combat infantryman, Plumley eventually achieved the rank of Command Sergeant Major. He is most famous for his actions as Sergeant Major of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, at the Battle of Ia Drang, Vietnam, on 14-18 November 1965. Lieutenant General Hal Moore who, as a Lieutenant Colonel, was Plumley's battalion commander during the Battle of Ia Drang, praised Plumley as an outstanding NCO and leader in the 1992 book about this battle, We Were Soldiers Once...And Young. The book was the basis for the 2002 film We Were Soldiers.

Plumley retired as a Command Sergeant Major on 31 December 1974, after almost 33 years of military service spanning World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Plumley was known affectionately by his soldiers as "Old Iron Jaw."

Post-Retirement

After his retirement, Plumley worked 15 more years for the Army as a civilian in administration at Martin Army Community Hospital and at various Troop Medical Clinics around Fort Benning, GA. He retired again in 1990.

Personal Life

In 1948/49, Plumley married Deurice Dillon, who died on 28 May 2012, after 63 years of marriage.

In Popular Culture

Plumley was played by actor Sam Elliott in the movie We Were Soldiers (2

United States Army soldier

Basil Leonard Plumley (January 1, 1920 – October 10, 2012) was an American soldier who served in the United States Army for over three decades, rising to the rank of command sergeant major. He was a combat veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and is most noted for his actions during the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam.

Early life

Basil Leonard Plumley was born on January 1, 1920, in Blue Jay, West Virginia, one of six children born to coal miner Clay Plumley and his wife Georgia. After two years of high school, he worked as a chauffeur and truck driver before joining the U.S. Army on March 31, 1942.

Military career

In World War II, Plumley served with the 82nd Airborne Division, fighting in the division's assaults of Sicily and Salerno in Italy in 1943, and the invasion of Normandy in France and Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands in 1944. He ended the war at the rank of sergeant. During the Korean War, Plumley served with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant major in 1961.

In the Vietnam War, Plumley served as sergeant major of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Harold G. Moore, with whom he shared a close working relationship. Moore described Plumley as a "no-bullshit guy who believed, as I did, in tough training, tough discipline, and tough physical conditioning...I thank my lucky stars I had inherited such a treasure." At the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965, 450 troops of the 7th Cavalry Regiment fought some 2,000 soldiers of the People's Army of Vietnam, the first major battle of the war between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces. Plumley fought at Landing Zone X-Ray, where 79 American soldiers were killed. During the battle, Plumley grabbed a burning flare that had landed in a stack of amm

Hero of three wars dies in Columbus

Command Sgt. Major Basil Plumley was 92

By: Fort Benning, GA|Vis News Release
Published: October 10, 2012

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley has died at Columbus Hospice.  He was 92.  Plumley served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

During the Vietnam War, he was sergeant major of the 1st Battalion, 7th Calvary Regiment commanded by Lt. General (then Lt. Col.) Hal Moore.  The actions of that unit in the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965 were the basis of Moore's book, "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young."  The book was made in to a movie in 2002 starring Mel Gibson.  Plumley was played by Sam Elliot.

The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle between the United State Army  and regulars of the People's Army of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.      

CSM Plumley enlisted in the Army in March 1942 and retired with 32 years of service.  He worked at Martin Army Community Hospital for fifteen years after retirement. 

He was born in 1920 in Sandy Springs, West Virginia.

     Funeral arrangements have not been finalized.

CSM Basil L. Plumley (born 1920 in West Virginia) is most famous for his actions as a Sergeant-Major of the US Army's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, at the Battle of Ia Drang (1965). General Hal Moore praised Plumley as an outstanding NCO and leader in his book We Were Soldiers Once...And Young. The Sergeant Major was known affectionately by his soldiers as "Old Iron Jaw". Plumley is a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He made all 4 combat jumps with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII (Sicily, Salerno, D-Day and Market Garden) and one in Korea with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment. He retired as a Command Sergeant Major. After his retirement, Plumley worked for many years at a hospital in Georgia.

Plumley was one of the senior Sergeants-Major in the Army. He and Moore served together as

Tucked between pages 220 and 221 of a dog-eared copy of "We Were Soldiers Once … and Young" is a receipt from the Fort Benning commissary dated 2001. It serves two purposes; first, to mark the account of a remarkable incident that occurred in November 1965 during a battle between American forces and the North Vietnamese in the Ia Drang Valley; and second, to remind me that for a time, a giant walked among us.

In April 2001, the smoke had finally settled from the exodus of the film crew, the stars and cameras and hangers on who descended on Fort Benning earlier that year to film Hollywood's adaptation of We Were Soldiers. I was in the check-out line with my daughter and a friend, both 10-year-olds who had experienced first-hand the sensation that surrounded the presence of Hollywood royalty on post since their moms worked in the Public Affairs Office.

In walked retired Command Sgt. Major Basil Plumley and his wife Deurice.

I didn't introduce the girls to the Plumleys; they were on their way in and we were on our way out. But I explained who he was and reminded them that Sam Elliott played Plumley in the movie.

"He's a real hero, not an actor," I said. "He's the kind of hero Hollywood makes movies about."

The girls, of their own volition, approached the sergeant major to ask for his autograph. I held my breath, because I knew Plumley hated the limelight, no matter how "little" the light.

I had nothing to worry about. The girls bounded back smiling, with Plumley's signature scrawled across the back of my register receipt. That evening, I tucked it into the book for safe keeping, and there it stayed until last week, when I learned that Plumley died Oct. 10 at the Columbus Hospice after a short battle with cancer. He was 92.

I pulled the book off the shelf and turned to page 220 to review the brief account of an incident that happened on the second day of that bloody three-day battle between the Soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment and 2,000