VENDITTI NICHOLAS LOUIS

Name: WO1 Nicholas Louis Venditti
Status: Killed In Action from an incident on 07/10/1969 while performing the duty of Pilot.
Died 5 days later on 07/15/1969.
Age at death: 20.6
Date of Birth: 11/26/1948
Home City: Malvern, PA
Service: AV branch of the reserve component of the U.S. Army.
Unit: HHC 16 CAG 23 INF
Major organization: Americal Division
Flight class: 69-13
Service: AV branch of the U.S. Army.
The Wall location: 20W-003
Short Summary: Killed by a "dud" grenade thrown by an instructor during orientation training at LZ Bayonet south of Chu Lai. Vachon also killed.
Service number: W3164755
Country: South Vietnam
MOS: 004A = Duties Unassigned or In Transit
Primary cause: Ground Casualty
Compliment cause: grenades
Started Tour: 07/03/1969
"Official" listing: ground casualty
Location: Quang Ngai Province I Corps.

Additional information about this casualty:
My cousin was Warrant Officer Nicholas L. Venditti, 20, from Malvern, Pa. He and about two dozen other men were in a classroom the morning of July 10, 1969, at LZ Bayonet, about 3,000 yards south of Chu Lai, when an instructor flung a grenade at them. It was supposed to be a dud, but it exploded. Nicky died five days later. One of his best friends, WO Wilbur J. Vachon III, died two days after Nicky. SP5 Timothy T. Williams died instantly. About 10 other soldiers were wounded, including the instructor. Nicky and Vachon were with the 16th Combat Aviation Group. Williams was a quartermaster with the 26th Engineer Battalion. See http://www.davidvenditta.com/ David Venditta NOTE: My last name is spelled differently from Nicky's. It's a quirk of the family. Vinditti and Vachon. They were both room mates of mine thru flight school class 69-13. We never called each other by our first names. We were assigned four to a room alphabetically and my last name is Waugh. I thought it was unusual that they were assigned to the same unit in Viet Nam after having gone all the way thru flight school together. It is even more tragic that they died from the same senseless incident. I wish that my memory was better and that I could relate some happy story about our time together in flight school, but it has been over 36 years since those days. I can tell their families that I was proud to have been their room mate. I would also state that in effect all causalities of war are accidents. Their sacrifice is no less because of a terrible accident that if they had been shot by the enemy or perished in a aircraft crash. Bill Waugh Class 69-13

Web site(s) refering to this casualty:
http://www.davidvenditta.com/

Reason: other accident
Casualty type: Non-hostile - died illness or injuries
single male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Roman Catholic
Burial information: PHILADELPHIA MEMORIAL PARK, FRAZER, PA
The following information secondary, but may help in explaining this incident.
Category of casualty as defined by the Army: non-battle dead Category of personnel: active duty Army Military class: warrant officer
This record was last updated on 04/26/2002

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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023