Charles W. Plummer

Charles Warner Plummer (1890-1918) was a military aviator in the U.S. Air Service who defended the 88th Aero Squadron's aerial reconnaissance mission to photograph the Vesle River sector of France during World War I. Plummer helped drive off more than a dozen airplanes of the German Air Force before five German planes shot down his plane. These actions helped Plummer's squadron capture 30 critical photographs of German enforcements and earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, the American military's second highest honor. In an earlier mission, Plummer received France's Croix de Guerre for defending aviators from his squadron despite receiving 30 bullets in his own airplane. He also received a medal from the Aero Club of America that recognized his aviation achievements.

Education and Military Enlistment
Plummer graduated from the Morristown School (now Morristown-Beard School) in Morristown, New Jersey in 1910 and received his bachelor's degree at Harvard University in 1914. He then briefly worked for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company before enlisting with Battery A of the 101st Field Artillery Regiment in Massachusetts.

Social Activities and Polo
Plummer joined Delta Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity, during his days at Harvard, and he played polo. The book Polo in the United States: A History identified Plummer as one of two notable polo players killed in action during World War I: "American polo players were also killed in the conflict, most notably Maj. Augustus Peabody Gardner, a polo player from Myopia Hunt Club, and Charles W. Plummer, 88th Aero Squad, a Harvard graduate shot down in his plane over the Vesle River in August 1918." After Plummer's death, Polo players named the Charles W. Plummer Memorial Trophy after him. The trophy went to the winner of the Boston Indoor Polo League.

Burial in France
Plummer and his pilot received burial on a knoll overlooking a valley in Chierry, France. The grave carries a marking of a propeller blade, customary for many aviators killed in World War I.