TSGT Parley Carlos Plaster

TSGT Parley Carlos Plaster was born 26 Mar 1913 in Swords Creek, Virginia. He was the oldest of the 5 children born to Henry Clinton and Mary Elizabeth (McGlothlin) Plaster. His father owned the farm on Big Lick Road (later known as Road Number 83) near Swords Creek that supported the family. By 1940, Parley and his brother Henry were working as coal miners as did most of their neighbors.

After local National Guard units were federalized in February 1941 there was a large call-up of men who had registered for the draft. Due to policies in place at the time, those men were sent to regional training centers where the likelihood of being assigned to one of those "local" National Guard units was better than later in the war. Parley and his younger brother Henry were drafted on 18 Apr 1941 and both were assigned to I Company 116th Infantry. They would then train with the unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, in the Carolina maneuvers and at Camp Blanding, Florida. He was then sent with the unit to England aboard the Queen Mary and trained there for the amphibious assault that would take place on 6 Jun 1944. SSG Plaster was wounded on 8 Jun 1944 and evacuated to hospital. He did not return to the unit until 19 Sep 1944 when he was transferred from the replacement depot. Parley was promoted to TSGT on 28 Oct 1944. he fought with the unit until 3 Dec 1944 when he was struck by shrapnel from a bouncing betty mine and killed in action during an attack on the Sportplatz outside Koslar, Germany.This was reportedly the same mine that killed PVT Ewal Garrett.

TSGT Plaster was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Plaster Cemetery in Swords Creek, Virginia.

Brother, Henry Jackson Plaster, was drafted with Parley and served with him in I Company 116th Infantry. Henry was wounded but survived the war. Their grandfather, Henry Lafayette Plaster, served as a PVT in G Company 29th Virginia Infantry (CSA) in the Civil War. Great-grandfather, Christopher Columbus Richardson, served as a PVT in G Company 14th Kentucky Cavalry (CSA).