‘Not in line of duty’ ruling left soldier’s family without benefits
On the morning of April 27, 2013, young athletes in the Riverhead Little League gathered in Calverton to play at the town’s four brand-new ballfields. Two of the fields at the park, dubbed Veteran’s Memorial Park, were named for soldiers who lived on the same block and died two years apart after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of those fields features a sign that reads “SFC Anthony Venetz Jr. Field,” named for the 1999 Shoreham-Wading River High School graduate.
To many town residents who use the ballfields, that might be just a name on a schedule indicating which field they’re playing on that week. But to those who knew Sgt. Venetz, it’s the name of a true hero.
Sgt. Venetz’s obituary lists the extraordinary number of honors bestowed upon him during his decade of active duty, including two Bronze Star Medals, one with valor; two Purple Heart Awards; four Army Commendation Medals, two with valor; and an Army Good Conduct Medal — along with more than a dozen others.
He was instrumental in the Dec. 13, 2003, capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, a fact that is detailed in “We Got Him!,” a memoir published in 2012 by retired Army Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who went on to become a state senator in Oklahoma and is currently running for Congress.
An April 2006 Army press release credits Sgt. Venetz, who was deployed to the Middle East four times, with helping to pull an Iraqi civilian’s cargo truck from a crater caused by a roadside bomb. He and Sgt. Stephen Holderby located tow hooks on the truck and hooked the tow strap to an Army vehicle. After their first attempt to extricate the massive truck failed, the two soldiers devised another plan. By attaching another tow cable directly to the axle, they skillfully began pulling the heavy truck out of the crater, according to the release.
“This selfless action not only assisted the local national in his delivery of cargo, but also displayed to the people of Hawr Rajeb the concern Coalition Forces have for citizens of Iraq,” Capt. Jared Rudacille said in the release.
The commendation on his Bronze Star Medal with Valor states that just four months before his death, Sgt. Venetz placed “effective and accurate fire” on the enemy for two days despite being wounded during the combat incident in the Jangalak Village of Afghanistan.
The story most often told about Mr. Venetz’s heroism is the one motivational speaker Rick Yarosh, a retired Army sergeant, tells about the day Sgt. Venetz helped save his life. Sgt. Yarosh, whose badly burned face is featured in a portrait on display at the Smithsonian Institution, was manning a gunner’s turret in an armored military vehicle near Abu Ghraib, Iraq, in September 2006 when an Iraqi hiding in the distance detonated an improvised explosive device that ruptured the vehicle’s fuel cell, according to a story published March 21, 2013 in USA Today.
Unable to see, Sgt. Yarosh miraculously escaped through a hatch and wandered into a canal, where the water doused the fire that had already burned his entire body.
“I was ready,” he told USA Today. “I thought this is how the Lord was going to take me.”
Then a pair of hands reached for him — one hand belonged to Army Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Venetz Jr. of Wading River, the other was offered by Staff Sgt. Saul Jackson.
The two men — along with Sgt. Luis Montes and the targeted vehicle’s driver — kept the badly burned soldier company until a helicopter carried him to a combat support hospital, where doctors worked to save his life.
Hours after the ballfield dedication in Calverton last year, Debbie Venetz sat down at her computer and typed up a different story about her husband. The one least often told.
In an email to the Riverhead News-Review, she thanked the paper for its coverage of her husband’s life and death but said there “is more to the story than what people know about.”
“For the past two and a half years, while everyone else was grieving and remembering Anthony, I had to fight a battle to uncover what actually happened to my husband and fight for my children’s benefits,” she wrote.
Sixteen months later, she’s still fighting.
