Article posted: 10/13/2012 6:12 AM

‘We Were Soldiers’ inspiration dies

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In a March 19, 2009 photo, retired Command Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley, right, and retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, left, who served together with the 1st Cavalry Division in the Ia Drang Valley, talk at the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center in Columbus, Ga. Plumley, 92, died Wednesday morning at the Columbus Hospice in Columbus, Ga.

Associated Press

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Basil L. Plumley, a renowned career soldier whose exploits as an Army infantryman were portrayed in a book and the movie “We Were Soldiers,” has died at 92 — an age his friends are amazed that he lived to see. Plumley fought in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam and was awarded a medal for making five parachute jumps into combat.