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These Tough Americans Fought In WWII, Korea, and Vietnam

Khalid Elhassan August 2, 2019 23 min

Basil L. Plumley - Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley

1. Phelps in Korea and Vietnam

Jim Phelps in 2016. Panama City News Herald

Back in the US, Jim Phelps went back to high school, and graduated in 1948. He then took advantage of the GI Bill to get into some college. He left college in 1950 to enlist – this time legally – in the Air Force, and was sent to Korea as a staff sergeant. He did not find his Korean War experience agreeable. As he put it years later: “I didn’t like Korea. Korea is cold and hilly“.

In 1966, Phelps volunteered for service in Vietnam, and he recalls that what stood out the most for him were helicopters. He had seen no helicopters in WWII, and only a few in Korea, but choppers were all over the place in Vietnam. Another difference he noticed between his first war and his last was the civilian response. “World War II was a different kind of thing – everybody was patriotic“. He retired from the service in 1969, and got a construction job in Vietnam, where he met and married his wife. He returned to the US, and became a cop for a decade, before retiring for good in 1980. Thereafter, Mr. and Mrs. Phelps spent much of their free time in volunteer work at their local VFW in Panama City Beach, Florida.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Army dot Mil, May 22^nd, 2013 – Best Warriors Honor Veteran of World War II, Korea, Vietnam

CT Examiner, June 1^st, 2019 – Middle Haddam Picnic Honors WWII Vets

Florida Times Union, October 12^th, 2012 – Veteran of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Portrayed in ‘We Were Soldiers’, Dies at 92

NPR, October 11^th, 2012 – Veteran Fought in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam

Oklahoma History Center – Command Sergeant Major Robert Arthur White

Olds, Robin, and Olds, Christina – Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds (2010)

Orange County Register, July 28^th, 2012 – These Men Fought in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam

Panama City News Herald, November 8^th, 2016 – PCB Veteran’s Service Spanned WWII, Korea, Vietnam

Quora – Has Any Single Person Ever Fought in Both World War II and Vietnam?

San Diego Union Tribune, February 26^th, 2014 – World War II Vet Retires After 65 Years With the Marines

Stars and Stripes, February 28^th, 2007 – Vietnam War Helicopter Pilot Awarded Medal of Honor

Stars and Stripes, May 7^th, 2018 – Veteran Who Served During World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, to Speak at VE Day Ceremony in DC

War History Online – This 86 Year Old American Veteran Served WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam

Wikipedia – Basil L. Plumley

Wikipedia – Ed Freeman

WJHG News 7, January 18^th, 2018 – Local VFW Serving the Community

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.