Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: To follow your instincts and to inspire your men, by your example, you have to be with 'em. Where the metal meets the meat.
Sergeant Ernie Savage: Beautiful morning, Sergeant.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: What are you a fucking weatherman now?
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Seen the new rifles too, the M-16.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: That's supposed to be a pretty good weapon.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Ahh, lotsa plastic. Feels like a BB gun to me. Believe I'm gonna stick with my pistol.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Think we're gonna get close enough to the enemy to use that?
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: What do you think, sir?
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I think you oughta get yourself an M-16.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Sir, if the time comes I need one, there'll be plenty lying on the ground.
2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan: Barbra and I spent a year in Africa. We helped build a school for orphans. They were orphans because the warlord across the border didn't like their tribe. I know that God has a plan for me, I just hope it's to help protect orphans, not make any.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: You got a death wish, Galloway?
Joe Galloway: No, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Then why are you here?
Joe Galloway: Cause I knew these dead boys would be here, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I can hear you laughing you know.
Julie Moore: I'm not laughing, I'm marveling.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: At what?
Julie Moore: That you can find stubbornness in your children and think it comes from anywhere but you.
Sgt. Ernie Savage: Good morning, Sergeant Major.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is?
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I got a problem, Snake Shit, and I think you're the solution.
Maj. Bruce Crandall: I've been called a lot of things, Colonel, never a solution.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I'll never forgive myself.
Joseph Galloway: For what, sir?
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: That my men... that my men died and I didn't.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I wonder what was going through Custer's mind when he realised that he'd led his men into a slaughter?
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Sir, Custer was a pussy. You ain't.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Where you from, son?
Joseph Galloway: Refugio, Texas, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Well, that's the first thing I've heard today that makes any sense.
Joe Galloway: Sir, I don't know how to tell this story.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Well you have to, Joe. You tell the American people what happened here. You tell them how my troopers died.
Joe Galloway: Yes sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Broken Arrow.
Answer: This one did, everything ascribed to him in the film was true.
Farmersboy
CSM Plumley's records show that he served in 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion as a scout. The 320th participated in two glider assaults in the European Theater. Also, Plumley never served in Korea during the Korean War, so he couldn't have participated in one of the two combat jumps of that conflict. His record book indicates he was at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky (1951 to early 1953) when he received orders to Germany. Finally, he never claimed to have made any combat jumps in his career.