Family and friends mourn Antioch WWII veteran who found his closure

World War II veteran and longtime Antioch resident John Trinca spent decades searching for the name of the soldier who died next to him during the Battle of Mindanao in the Philippines on June 3, 1945.

Two years ago, at an emotional ceremony at the Lake County Veterans Memorial at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Army Staff Sgt. Trinca got to meet the young man's family, including his son, who was just an infant when his father died.

He said it gave him peace and closure.

Trinca passed away on Sept. 12 at the age of 90.

“Now, he’s at peace with everything,” said his friend Paul I. Hettich, at a funeral mass held at St. Bede Catholic Church in Ingleside on Sept. 19.

Search for an unknown soldier

Trinca was a member of the 24th Infantry Division and earned a Bronze Battle Star, along with other medals. He had known Pvt. Thomas Bateman for mere minutes before he was killed in action.

The two had just enough time to realize they were both from Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. They agreed to exchange names and addresses once they go back to their foxhole so they could inform the other’s family if anything happened to one of them.

Trinca told this story to Hettich, his wife Mary Ann and their son, Army Col. Paul I. Hettich, who was his neighbor. They discovered Bateman’s identity in 2011, but the last piece of the puzzle was meeting his surviving family, which happened three years later.

Bateman’s relatives were located by Purple Hearts Reunited, which became involved at the request of a man named Tom McAvoy, who found the deceased soldier’s long lost Purple Heart medal in his grandmother’s apartment building in Hyde Park in the early 1950s, when he was just a boy.

McAvoy spent years trying to reunite the medal with Bateman’s family without success. The mystery was solved with the help of State Sen. Michael Hastings’ office and Purple Hearts Reunited, which notified Trinca after reading about his search in a newspaper clipping.

Finally at peace

“I personally believe this was a turning point, a closure in John’s life,” Col. Hettich said. “I believe John became more at peace with himself, the war and the future, because he was finally able to know that soldier who died next to him in battle.”

Like many veterans, the tragedy of war and its aftermath became permanently etched in Trinca’s memory, Paul I. Hettich said. “When you’ve seen combat, it defines the rest of your life.”

Despite wrestling those demons, Trinca spoke often of his military service and loved attending events and holiday celebrations that recognized veterans.

“He would never be seen without his black WWII combat hat. His final wish in life was to have a full military funeral and burial,” Col. Hettich said.

“This is exactly what he would have wanted,” Paul I. Hettich said.

Trinca is survived by his dear friend, Nancy Pauer, three sisters, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was an outstanding cook who enjoyed entertaining, gardening and watching John Wayne movies, according to his obituary.