Name: James Salley, Jr.
Rank/Branch: E7/US Army
Unit: Advance Team 22, MACV
Date of Birth: 17 August 1930 (Denmark SC)
Home City of Record: Columbia SC
Date of Loss: 31 March 1971
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 143740N 1074329E (YB935188)
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Category: 1
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel in Incident:
Philip Terrill (missing)
REMARKS:
710715 DIED LAOS WITH ALLWINE
SYNOSIS:
SP4 Philip Terrill, a rifleman from HHB, 1st Battalion, 92nd Artillery
and SFC James Salley, Jr., an advisor from Advance Team 22, MACV, were part of
an integrated observation systems team and were taken captive together on March
31, 1971 after fire support base Number 6 on Hill 1001 was overrun by elements
of the 66th NVA Regiment. The support base, including an ARVN camp, was located
in Kontum Province, South Vietnam.
Liberation Radio and Hanoi Radio broadcasts in early April 1971 and a Quan Doi Nhan Dan article appearing in July 1972 referred to this battle and the capture of the American advisors.
In 1973, 591 American prisoners were released, but Terrell and Salley were not among them. Sgt. David F. Allwine, who was released, stated that he had been held with SFC Salley in captivity when Salley died on July 15, 1971. He also said that he had helped to bury SFC Salley in Laos. (The loss site and the location of the POW camp was in the tri-border area of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.) According to Allwine, Salley told him that SP4 Terrell, who had been seriously wounded, had died on the trail only four days after his capture. When 591 American prisoners were released in 1973, Terrill was not among them.
SFC Salley's death was officially acknowledged in January 1973 by the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Vietnam, with his date of death given as August 15, 1971. The PRG, however, never acknowledged SP4 Terrill's death, nor has Vietnam returned either of the two men's bodies.
There is no question that the Vietnamese have certain knowledge of Terrill and Salley. By any standard, the two are prisoners of war until their bodies are returned home. Even more tragically, thousands of reports have been received convincing many authorities that scores of Americans remain alive in captivity in Southeast Asia. It's time we brought these prisoners home.
