Pfc. Vincent Vega would have been 93 on Friday, the day of his funeral, if he had not been killed in the Korean War 75 years ago.

Vega had been missing in action since a battle at Osan in Korea in June 1950 as the U.S. Army fought against a Chinese offensive in one of the most significant points of the war that stopped a communist takeover of South Korea.

Vega was 18 when he left his home in Chicago to fight for his country.

His remains were identified earlier this year with the use of advanced DNA analysis.

“I was 10 months old when he was listed as missing in action,” nephew Louis Vasquez said. “I didn’t know him, but he knew me.”

Vasquez, a resident of Worth, said his name was mentioned in letters that his uncle wrote home while in the Army.

He and his sister, Barbara Schoenfeld of Oak Lawn, where among 20 relatives who attended the funeral for Vega at St. Joseph Catholic Church in downtown Joliet.

“It means a lot,” Schoenfeld said of her uncle’s remains being brought back home. “I just wish my mother could have been here.”

Their mother, Esther Vasquez, died in 2021 after spending much of her lifetime trying to find her brother. It was Esther’s DNA that helped identify Vincent, Schoenfeld said.

The Vega children, six of them, were orphans, having lost their parents at a young age.

Only two brothers are still alive.

One of them, Richard Vega, had to choke back tears as he read the Prayers of the Faithful at his brother’s funeral Mass, a testimony to the family ties that survived the hardship of their times.

The family is spread across the country now. No family members live in Joliet. But they wanted Vega buried at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood. They chose St. Joseph’s as the church where they wanted his funeral Mass.

“They asked if we would do the funeral,” said the Rev. John Hornicak, pastor of the parish. “We said, ‘Of course.’”

Hornicak presented the funeral Mass, which included a reading from the Second Book of Timothy with the passage: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

In his homily, Hornicak alluded to words from St. Paul in describing Vega’s life and death as a soldier.

“Vincent will receive the crown of righteousness, a reward for his faithful service,” Hornicak said.

Vega’s casket was carried by soldiers from the U.S. Army funeral honors team. The Joliet Fire Honor Guard stood at attention as the casket was carried in and out of the church. A piper with the Joliet Police Pipe & Drums honored Vega with traditional bagpipe music. Rolling Thunder provided a motorcycle escort for his funeral procession.

His family was moved by the attention paid to a teen soldier who died in what is now a long-ago war.

“He’s getting what he deserves,” Louis Vasquez said. “He was a hero.”