Plumley

Coordinates: 53°16′34″N 2°25′26″W / 53.276°N 2.424°W / 53.276; -2.424

Plumley is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England.

In the village there are two public houses, The Golden Pheasant and The Smoker (which has won awards), a village hall, a Methodist church, tennis courts, riding stables, a post office and a golf course nearby. Plumley railway station is on the Mid-Cheshire Line and has regular services to Manchester and Chester. School buses also run through the village for both primary and secondary school pupils. There is an amateur football side, known as Plumley FC

See also

External links

Media related to Plumley at Wikimedia Commons

We Were Soldiers

We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965. The film was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young (1992) by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, both of whom were at the battle.

Plot

A French unit on patrol in Vietnam in 1954, during the final year of the First Indochina War, is ambushed by Viet Minh forces. Viet Minh commander Nguyen Huu An orders his soldiers to "kill all they send, and they will stop coming".

Eleven years later, the United States is fighting the Vietnam War. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) is chosen to train and lead a battalion. After arriving in Vietnam, he learns that an American base has been attacked, and is ordered to take his 400 men after the enemy and eliminate the Vietnamese attackers, despite the fact that intelligence has no idea of the number of enemy troops. As the haunting lament "Sgt. MacKenzie" plays, Moore leads a newly created air cavalry unit into the Ia Drang Valley. After landing in the "Valley of Death", the soldiers learn that the location they were sent to is actually the base camp for a veteran North Vietnamese Army division of 4,000 men.

Sergeant major

Sergeant major is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. In Commonwealth countries, the various degrees of sergeant major are appointments held by warrant officers. In the United States, there are also various degrees of sergeant major (command sergeant major, sergeant major of the army, sergeant major of Marine Corps), but they are all of the same pay grade.

History

In 16th century Spain, the sargento mayor ("sergeant major") was a general officer. He commanded an army's infantry, and ranked about third in the army's command structure; he also acted as a sort of chief of staff to the army's commander.

In the 17th century, sergeant majors appeared in individual regiments. These were field officers, third in command of their regiments (after their colonels and lieutenant colonels), with a role similar to the older, army-level sergeant majors (although obviously on a smaller scale). The older position became known as "sergeant major general" to distinguish it. Over time, the term sergeant was dropped from both titles, giving rise to the modern ranks of major and major general.

Basil L. Plumley

Basil L. Plumley (January 1, 1920 – October 10, 2012) was a career soldier and airborne combat infantryman in the United States Army who eventually achieved the rank of Command Sergeant Major. A veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, he is most famous for his actions during the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam.

Military career

Plumley enlisted in the US Army as a private on March 31, 1942. He was a member of the 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He saw action during the Italian Campaign, the Invasion of Normandy, and Operation Market Garden, making a total of four combat jumps. He was awarded multiple decorations for his service in World War II. Plumley went on to fight in the Korean War and make one more combat jump there with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment. He fought in Vietnam with the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment. He participated in the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam in 1965, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, who 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, in which Plumley was played by actor Sam Elliott. Plumley was known affectionately by his soldiers as "Old Iron Jaw".

Fort Benning

Fort Benning is a United States Army base straddling the Alabama-Georgia border next to Columbus, Georgia. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees, and civilian employees on a daily basis. It is a power projection platform, and possesses the capability to deploy combat-ready forces by air, rail, and highway. Fort Benning is the home of the United States Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, the United States Army Armor School, United States Army Infantry School, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of the Americas), elements of the 75th Ranger Regiment, 3rd Brigade – 3rd Infantry Division, and many other additional tenant units. Military personnel in Fort Benning have been taught Choi Kwang Do under grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi for purposes in military combat.

It is named after Henry L. Benning, a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.