Michael,
are you getting XRT or IMRT? If you are getting IMRT and the salivary glands are not in the direct beam path, they will recover in about 18 months time with or without amifostine.

Your research is quite correct - the jury (i.e. NCCN) is out about adjunctive chemo for Stage I tumors. Ultimately you will have to decide what weapons you want to use. Remember that chemo, as a stand alone has not proven effective for H&N cancer so should you have a recurrence you would lose the additional benefit of the combination treatment. The risk is toxicity from the chemo agent. For many of us the radiation had the worst collateral damage.

I might also add that there is quite a bit of difference between tough fibery tongue tissue and lymph type tonsil tissue, meaning that tongue tumors are inherently more difficult to treat - another factor to consider with your RO and MO. Was your advice from a tumor board or just individual MD opinions?