Charleston, W.Va. (Hinton News) – The West Virginia Legislature, before the end of the 2023 session, completed legislation to honor Prince native Harold Richard Plumley. Senate Concurrent Resolution 8, sponsored by Senator Jack Woodrum (R-Summers 10), honors the life and legacy of Harold Plumley, a U.S. Army veteran who was killed in action toward the end of the Korean War. Once signage is placed by the West Virginia Division of Highways, the Fayette County native will be remembered with the “U. S. Army PV2 Harold
Richard Plumley Memorial Bridge,” renaming the Stanaford Rd. bridge on Rt. 41 at Prince.
Known locally as Strecherneck Bridge, the bridge that will bear Pvt. Harold Plumley’s name passes over one of CSX Transportation’s primary rail lines in West Virginia. Prior to his military service, Plumley was employed by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, a CSXT predecessor railroad, as a member of a “track gang,” embodying labor-intensive employment of this era. Appropriate for the former railway worker, Strecherneck Bridge stands yards away from the C&O Railway-built Stretchers Neck Tunnel, part of the railroad’s east-west infrastructure.
According to his family, Plumley was drafted into the U.S. Army in late 1952 and trained at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania before serving overseas in the Republic of Korea. Pvt. Plumley fought with Company K, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division near what was commonly referred to as the “Iron Triangle” on the Korean Peninsula. Pvt. Plumley was killed on June 11, 1953, during the battle of Outpost Harry on the Korean Peninsula where United Nations Command forces comprised of
less than 5,000 American and Greek forces fought over 13,000 Chinese troops just over one month before the end of the Korean conflict on July 27.
For his service to his country, PV2 Harold Richard Plumley was awarded the Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman Badge, Marksmanship Badge, Korean Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Republic of Korea Presidential Citation, Republic of Korea War Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, Army Presidential Unit Citation, and the Army Good Conduct Medal.
“Our state has a long, proud tradition of its citizens serving our country in the military, and sadly, many of those citizens have paid the ultimate sacrifice in defending our freedom,” Senator Woodrum said. “This bridge will honor the sacrifice that Mr. Plumley gave for his country, and will serve as a reminder for everybody who crosses it of the gratitude we owe our veterans.”
Harold Richard Plumley was born March 22, 1934, at Hamlet, Raleigh County, the second child of 12 of Mr. Earless Plumley and Mrs. Georgia Plumley of Prince. He attended school at Hamlet and Glade, and at age 12, walked from the Plumley family home through the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway’s nearby Stretchers Neck Tunnel to reach Quinnimont School.
Harold Plumley is now survived by four siblings, Elizabeth Goodson, Margaret Plumley, Marvin Plumley, and Thomas Plumley. To them, this bridge named for their late brother is a high honor, and one that is especially fitting for Harold. Not only is Stretcherneck Bridge near the former site of the Plumley family home, but the Stanaford Rd. bridge on Rt. 41 stands a few hundred yards west of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway station at Prince, still standing, where Pvt. Plumley first left for service in the U.S. Army. After returning to the United States on board the SS Greenbay Victory, Pvt. Plumley’s casket was returned to the same railway station on train No. 3 at 7:35 AM, August 8, 1953.
Marvin Plumley of Meadow Bridge remembers his older brother in uniform during the one opportunity he had to return home to West Virginia during his military service. In early 1953, when Marvin was six years old, Pvt. Plumley traveled from Indiantown Gap to Prince by automobile with his cousin, Ernest Avis, who was working as a military contractor in Pennsylvania. On the Sunday evening at the end of his weekend pass, Avis, a World War II veteran himself, picked up Harold at Prince along a wide spot by the former bridge that took Rt. 41 over the C&O Railway’s tracks. Marvin Plumley recounts that later Avis finished the story by saying, “After Harold got into the car, he stated, ‘I’ll never be back.’”
Now the modern bridge in the same spot will bear Harold Plumley’s name. Speaking about this honor for his brother, Marvin calls it “a memorial that will be everlasting.”
Mr. Plumley, a retired C&O Railway/Amtrak employee, expressed his thankfulness to Senator Woodrum and Senator Deeds for making the resolution happen for his late brother, “Not everyone is in a position to accomplish such a lasting tribute. Our family is grateful.”
A brother’s memory and a bittersweet tribute
In a twist of fate, Marvin Plumley finished his own 40-year railroading career as station agent for Prince, the same passenger station where, as a boy, he had watched his brother’s casket removed from a C&O train. During those years serving the public just one mile from where he was born, he loaded and unloaded travelers’ luggage on the same railway baggage wagon used to convey Harold’s casket into a waiting hearse in 1953. This extraordinary intersection of family history at the Prince station was documented in the winter 2008 issue of Goldenseal magazine (“The Duke of Prince: Ticket Agent Marvin Plumley”).
In 2020, as a tribute to his brother, Marvin completed the historical restoration of that same C&O Railway baggage wagon, which had been donated by Amtrak to the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society. Thanks to his efforts, the fully-restored artifact is on permanent display in the organization’s C&O Railway Heritage Center museum in Clifton Forge, Virginia, where Marvin has served as a volunteer since his retirement.
Cause for celebration, reflection
The resolution to honor Pvt. Harold Plumley was supported and filed in late 2022 by former West Virginia State Senator and Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin (D-Greenbrier 10), and the resolution was introduced during the 2023 legislative session by Sen. Woodrum. The Plumley family is thanking both men for the roles they played completing this permanent honor for their brother killed so many years ago.
Pvt. Harold Plumley’s surviving family and extended relatives are planning a dedication ceremony once the West Virginia Division of Highways erects the new signs publicly formalizing the naming of Stretcherneck Bridge as the “U. S. Army PV2 Harold Richard Plumley Memorial Bridge.” Marvin added that he wished it was possible for his parents to be at the ceremony, “to know it got done.” He added, “To be able to get it done in this location is more than appropriate. It’s in the right place.”
Pvt. Plumley is interred at High Lawn Memorial Park at Oak Hill.
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