“Ain’t no such thing today, boy”

Custer was a pussy... You ain't.

His character is amazing in this movie, I don’t know if it’s based off real life like COL Hal Moore but if a SGM made all 4 jumps in Europe AND one in Korea, wouldn’t be a man alive to say anything to him. I should research his character tonight.

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Originally posted by OttoSig:
His character is amazing in this movie, I don’t know if it’s based off real life like COL Hal Moore but if a SGM made all 4 jumps in Europe AND one in Korea, wouldn’t be a man alive to say anything to him. I should research his character tonight.

SgtMaj Plumbly was indeed a real person. He is portrayed as close to live as Hollywood gets and was in the battle the movie depicts. He passed away several years ago.

Time to watch it again, been awhile...Look up the Helicopter Pilots stories...Crandle and Freeman....21 sorties in one day I think it was...

60

A couple years ago, I met and had a hour and half talk with one of the survivors from the "Lost Platoon". Per him, their prediciment did not occur due to the Platoon Leader chasing a NVA soldier, they were actually sent out on a patrol and just barely got a couple hundred yards away when they were hit. Sgt. Savage took command because he was the closest to the radio. The gentleman told me that all their canteens were empty from bullets going through them (remember the old LBE set up, canteens were on the back side of your hips). Anyone who raised their body more than a foot off the ground were hit. He said the soldiers who were aware of where good cover was or were lucky, they landed in low little depressions (one step below a hasty scrape). Everyone that landed on a little "high area" were killed Almost everyone received some wound that night be it "shot in the ass" or shrapnel. When they were rescued, Col. Moore thought he would put them on a quiet portion of the line to recover....which turned out to be exactly a major attack occurred.

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if a SGM made all 4 jumps in Europe AND one in Korea

According to his bio in Wikipedia, he made no combat jumps. He made two glider assaults in Europe - Normandy and Market Garden. He served in Korea (1952-3) AFTER all the combat parachute assaults were finished (1951). His 2010 wiki picture show no gold stars on his master parachutist badge, nor are any listed in his awards and decorations.

Link

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
if a SGM made all 4 jumps in Europe AND one in Korea

Well, the book and movie both do purport that of the real-life SGM Plumley...

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"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 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment."

But unfortunately, the sad truth is that SGM Plumley appears to have exaggerated his military service, going so far as claiming/wearing unearned awards during some appearances.

https://www.military.com/daily...inflating-award.html

In truth, as stated by 229DAK, he made no combat parachute jumps during WW2, instead participating in two glider assaults into Normandy and Holland. And while he served in the military during the Korean War era, he didn't fight in Korea, rather spending the Korean War years in Kentucky and Germany.

That said, SGM Plumley was still a badass, fighting as glider infantry in WW2 and later legitimately earning a Silver Star while fighting in Vietnam.


And there is a different Army CSM who actually did make six combat jumps in WW2 and Korea: Horace Pearl. He jumped with the 505th four times in WW2, at Sicily, Salerno, Normandy, and Holland. And then made two jumps with the 187th in Korea, at Pyongyang and Musani. The most of any combat veteran of that era.

We Were Soldiers is probably my favorite war movie of all and a great book too.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I think you oughta get yourself an M-16.

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Sir, if the time comes I need one, there'll be plenty lying on the ground.

Wasn't landing in a glider much more dangerous than landing by parachute?