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Pfc Vincent A. Ascanio enlisted on 12 October 1943 in New York City, New York.

In a confrontation with German armor during the advance in the direction of Ameln, Germany, C Company quickly lost three of their fifteen tanks. The tank in which Pfc Ascanio was a crew member was one of them. Three crew members were wounded. Pfc Ascanio was the only mortal casualty. A month after the battle, a fellow crew member, T/4 Gransky stated that, when he was crawling through the tank to exit by one of the turret hatches, he noticed Pfc Ascanio lying on the turret floor. To the best of his knowledge, he was already dead. Gransky climbed out of the now-burning tank. He stayed near the disabled tank for a few minutes but no one else exited, and reported that the tank was “a complete mass of flames and the ammunition was exploding when I left. To the best of my knowledge,” he continued, “Ascanio was still in the tank after I left the area."

In 1947, a farmer of Ameln decided to take a look inside the burned-out tank. He noticed bones on the floor of the turret. The Americans were notified and they sent a team. The remains were recovered. They also thought they more or less identified the tank. It had a number on it and the name “Cobra” painted on the side. The team leader concluded from the numbers that this tank should have belonged to A Company. The fact that the name of the tank began with a “C” was not considered as evidence that it was Ascanio’s tank. A week before D-Day, the 747th’s tank crews were ordered to paint names on the sides of their tanks. The names had to begin with the letter of their company. This was to aid in identification in the field and the confusion of battle. Ascanio was with C Company. The name on the side of the burned-out tank at Ameln that was investigated in 1947 was “Cobra.”

These remains were buried in an “unknown’s” grave. At this moment the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is investigating these remains and has requested DNA from relatives (information added June 2026).