![]() Anthony Venetz, Jr. Sergeant First Class, United States Army |
![]() |
U.S.
Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) News Release IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 081-11 January 31, 2011 DOD Identifies Army Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sergeant First Class Anthony Venetz Jr., 30, of Prince William, Virginia, died January 28, 2011, in Parwan province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained in a non-combat incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, North Carolina. For more information, the media may contact
the U.S. Army Special Forces Command public affairs office at 910-432-6005.
Nearly a week after a decorated Army Special Forces soldier from Wading River died in a noncombat-related incident in Afghanistan, military officials are still investigating and have not released a cause of death. Sergeant First Class Anthony Venetz Jr., 30, who earned two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts during three combat tours, died Friday at Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. airfield in Afghanistan some 25 miles north of Kabul.
His father, Anthony Venetz Sr., said not knowing how his son died has added to his grief. "We don't know, and that's the hard part," his father told the Fayetteville Observer on Monday. "Right now, I'm trying to deal with the fact that he's gone. That's the part I haven't even begun to believe yet." The elder Venetz said his son had previously been wounded twice in combat, suffering a gunshot wound to the leg in September, and later a concussion when a Humvee he was riding in was hit by a roadside bomb. Venetz served two tours in Iraq and his current deployment began in Afghanistan last year. Venetz grew up on Wading River's Long Pond Road, and excelled in soccer at Shoreham-Wading River High School. He graduated in 1999, said Jon Cole, 30, of Wading River, who knew Venetz from childhood and who played with him on school soccer teams. "He was a defensive stopper who would play the other team's best scorer," Cole said. "He was quick, fast and physical, always played hard, always led by example." In 2001, Venetz enlisted in the Army in Prince William, Va., and served in Cuba and Iraq, according to an Army news release. In 2007, Venetz volunteered for the Special Forces. After completing Special Forces training in
March 2009, he was assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces
Group.
FORT BRAGG, North Carolina – A Special
Forces Soldier died January 28, 2011 in a non-combat related incident in
Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. The cause of his death is still under
investigation.
VENETZ, ANTHONY
Webmaster: Michael
Robert Patterson
Posted: 4 April 2011 |
![]()
|