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Never Underestimate This Sergeant Major
(Original Article)
(and the lies Plumley told during his career should
be the real title)
By Lt Gen Bolger
(Ret)
I tried to contact
Bolger by email at North Carolina State University
when he was a visiting Professor there. Neither
Bolger nor the History department at NC State
responded to repeated requests for comment on his
article. NC State in fact has removed Bolger from
their website.
When contacting the
Army Magazine itself they have stated they are too
busy to correct the poorly written Outpost article.
The Army Magazine said they would forward my email
ahead to Bolger and still no response. It brings
into question all of the Outpost articles.
Using the Army’s
own documentation it undermines the Army Magazine
itself. Highlighted in red are the quotes from the
Outpost Article from November of 2015 by Bolger.
Below each one is the actual documentation showing
that none of the highlighted portions are true.
Plumley
just knew his country was at war and he want to do
his part
Did not enlist,
Plumley was drafted
(File
Unit: Electronic
Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946
(Enlistment Records)
in the Series: World War II Army Enlistment Records,
created 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002, documenting the period
ca. 1938 - 1946. -
Record Group 64)
This was
how Plumley went to war. He fought in all the major
airborne operations: Sicily, Salerno, Normandy and
Holland.
320th
and 325th did not fight in Sicily
(RG
407 RECORDS OF THE ADJUTANT GNERAL’S OFFICE)
WWII OPERATIONS REPORTS, 1940-48
82ND
AIRBORNE DIVISION
382-FA(320)-0.1 TO 382-FA(320)-0.3
BOX
– 10457 Entry 427 HMFY 2007
At some
point, Plumley reclassified as infantry and earned
the first of three Combat Infantryman Badges
Plumley was
Artillery from day one 1942 to 1945. Only has one
Combat Infantryman’s Badge (from Vietnam) not three.
(RECORD
OF CURRENT SERVICE SHOWING ARTILLERY NOT
INFANTRY)
(MEMORANDUM
FOR RECORD FROM HRC/ADB)
In his
second war in five years, now-Sgt. Plumley gained
his second Combat Infantryman Badge jumping into
Munsan, Korea, with the 187th Airborne Regimental
Combat Team in 1951. He also fought at Pork Chop
Hill in 1953, where he met a captain named Harold G.
“Hal” Moore. Wounded four times in two wars, Plumley
had done his share and then some
Never fought in
Korea, was stateside at Ft. Campbell. Did not go to
Korea until 1972 and Plumley was wounded two time in
his entire career.
(MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD FROM HRC/ADB)
But when
now-Lt. Col. Moore asked Plumley to serve as the
battalion sergeant major of the 1st Battalion, 7th
Cavalry Regiment, there was no hesitation.
Moore could not
have asked for Plumley as he had never met him
before. Plumley was not in the Korean War.
(MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD FROM HRC/ADB)
Plumley
earned a Silver Star (his second)
One Silver Start
Medal, filed a forged document to appear to have a
second one
(MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD FROM HRC/ADB)
Hang up
on inquisitive journalists and historians
Plumley was easy to
locate and spoke for 7 minutes about his time in
Service.
The question is
where did Bolger get his information from and why
didn’t the Army Magazine fact checkers catch this?
The complete
Plumley article with extensive documentation is
here;
http://www.airborneinnormandy.com/plumley_last.htm
Brian Siddall
February 10, 2016
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