JAMES, SAMUEL LARRY

Name: Samuel Larry James
Rank/Branch: O3/US Air Force
Unit: 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron
Date of Birth: 24 July 1945
Home City of Record: Chattanooga TN
Date of Loss: 18 April 1973
Country of Loss: Cambodia
Loss Coordinates: 134200N 1065900E (YA153151)
Status (in 1973): (none)
Category: 3
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4E

Other Personnel in Incident: Douglas K. Martin (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 September 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: DEAD-CHARRED BODIES-FBIS

SYNOPSIS: Capt. Douglas K. Martin was the pilot, and Capt. Samuel L. James the
weapons system officer on an F4E "Phantom" jet assigned the task of marking a
target in Cambodia with a smoke rocket on April 18, 1973. Radar contact was lost
with the aircraft during the mission and no radio contact was made with the
crew. Wingmen observed no explosion or parachutes, and no emergency radio signal
"beepers" were heard. The wingmen did not see the plane go down, but they did
observe a new swath cut through dense jungle nearby.

A subsequent 700-square-mile search was conducted for the aircraft. During the
search for Martin and James, aerial photographs were taken of a probable crash
site which revealed an ejection seat, wing debris and one main landing gear. The
Air Force stated that James "is probably a POW according to our intelligence."

A July 8, 1973 report from a South Vietnamese agent who spoke with a refugee
described three American prisoners wearing one-piece flight suits who arrived in
Kompong Barey Hamlet in Prey Veng Province in southern Cambodia, en route to an
unnamed location near Loc Ninh in South Vietnam. The agent contacted a Viet Cong
cadre who stated that they would be held at Loc Ninh for future exchange. U.S.
officials later denied that the July 8, 1973 sighting report existed, although
James' father saw it himself in James' file when in Thailand in October, 1973.
Mr. James also spoke with the wingmen. They all agreed that the crew could have
survived.

A Cambodian broadcast report stating that the bodies of Martin and James were
found "charred" in the plane wreckage, was dismissed in 1973 by the Defense
Department as "propaganda," and the family was told not to regard it seriously.
Yet, as late as 1980, the "charred bodies" remark remain as data identifiers in
Defense Department records, with no further explanation given to the family.
James' family has never given up hope that he is still alive, waiting for his
country to secure his freedom. His family has worked tirelessly since the day he
was shot down to bring him home.

Both Douglas K. Martin and Samuel L. James attended the U.S. Air Force Academy.
When shot down, James was wearing a POW bracelet bearing the name of a missing
Academy friend, Dennis Pugh.
