Nearly 80 years after the Chesapeake and Ohio station in Prince, West Virginia was dedicated in 1946, another dedication took place in the Fayette County community. This time in memory of United States Army Private Second Class Harold Richard Plumley, who was tragically killed in action on 11 June, 1953 at the battle of Outpost Harry in the Korean War.
Harold was born in 1934 and would go on to join his father on the payroll of the C&O on a section gang before being called to serve his country during the Korean Conflict.
He was drafted in to the Army in 1952 and left for Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania by C&O train. His body returned to Prince for the final time on August 8, 1953 aboard C&O train No. 3.
Awaiting his body at the station upon its return was his younger brother Marvin, just six years old at the time, who would have a long and successful railroad career himself, first with C&O and then Amtrak. Marvin was for years the face of Prince as the station agent, serving the public just over a mile from where the family lived on the West side of Stretchers Neck Tunnel. The children, Harold and Marvin included, walked through the tunnel to Quinnimont, roughly a mile East of Prince, to and from school. During his career, Marvin regularly loaded baggage on to the same baggage cart that carried his brother’s casket.
The location of the ceremony, in a wide spot just off West Virginia Highway 41, in sight of the bridge and with the Prince station right around the corner, was apt. It is said that near this spot, Harold, back home in 1952 on a weekend pass from his Military duties, prophetically proclaimed he would never be back. Little did he or anyone know how right he was.
Today though, he is back. His name and story now immortalized in the name of the bridge overlooking the tunnel through which he walked to obtain his education, over the same railroad he and his family served with pride, well within earshot of trains departing the station he left for war from, ultimately to return by train far too soon.