Talley, James Lane
Army Sergeant

James Lane Talley, age 21, from Fort Benning, Georgia .

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Friday, June 19, 1964
Death details: On June 19, 1964, members of the 5th Special Forces Group left the Special Forces camp at Polei Krong with a 103-man Montagnard company on a combat patrol through an area in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam. As the unit moved through its area of operations on the northeast edge of Nui Ba Den Mountain, also known as Black Virgin Mountain, it came under intermittent attack from enemy forces. The patrol eventually abandoned the area and it was during this withdrawal that three of the Special Forces troops accompanying the patrol became missing. A full-scale search and rescue mission continued for more than a week but was unsuccessful in locating the missing patrol members. Specialist Four James Lane Talley entered the U.S. Army from Georgia and was a member of Detachment A-133, 5th Special Forces Group. He was participating in this patrol when it was ambushed, and he was not seen or heard from again following the incident. Following the incident, the Army posthumously promoted SP4 Talley to the rank of Sergeant (SGT). Today, Sergeant Talley is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Source: National Archives