VENNIK, ROBERT NICHOLAS
Remains Identified 02/02/2002

Name: Robert Nicholas Vennik
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army
Unit: Troop B, 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry, 196th Brigade, 23rd Infantry
Division
Date of Birth: 19 January 1946 (Midland Park NJ)
Home City of Record: Wyckoff NJ
Date of Loss: 26 August 1971
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 154959N 1080918E (AT949521)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1770

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.

Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On August 26, 1971, SSgt. Robert N. Vennik was riding atop an
armored personnel carrier (APC #B-24), moving to a night defensive position
near the village of Cu An, 23 miles southwest of Hoa An in Quang Nam
Province, South Vietnam.

Vennik's unit was ambushed, and after his APC was moved into a position to
provide fire support for other carriers, his track was hit by a rocket
propelled grenade, causing a violent explosion from the fragmentation and
white phosphorous grenades, the Claymore mines and the gas tanks of the APC.

Of the six men who were riding on top of the vehicle, five remains were
found and identified, but the remains of Vennik were never found. The area
was searched for two days. Witnesses felt that Vennik's body had been
destroyed in the explosion and ensuing 11 hour fire on the APC.