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.

[3] 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.

[4] During the battle, Plumley grabbed a burning flare that had landed in a stack of ammunition crates near the battalion command post and threw it to safety, an action that earned him the Silver Star.

[6] The newspaper deemed it "perplexing" that a "proven combat leader" like Plumley would wear medals he apparently did not earn.

Based on his research, Siddall wrote that Plumley served in the 82nd Airborne Division as a scout in a glider regiment, not as a paratrooper,[8] contradicting the claim in Hal Moore's book We Were Soldiers Once… and Young that Plumley made four parachute jumps in World War II.

[4][10][11] Plumley is a prominent figure in Lieutenant General Hal Moore's 1992 book We Were Soldiers Once… and Young, which chronicles the Battle of Ia Drang.