An Italian researcher tracks down John P. Vargo's nephews and returns the treasure he unearthed earlier this year at Anzio.
The dogtag of John P. Vargo, a soldier from Syracuse killed in May 1944 in Italy during the World War II battle of Anzio, was found in woods near the battlefield earlier this year by an Italian man searching with a metal detector.
Syracuse, NY - Timing is everything, as the Vargo brothers understand. They often reflect on how 20 or 30 years ago, before the rise of the Internet, it would have been difficult for someone with a metal detector in Italy to trace a World War II dog tag to the hometown of the American who wore it.
It was easier for Marco Ballini, an Italian researcher. Early this year, he dug a trench in a forest near the beach at Anzio, the starting point for a harrowing 1944 Allied campaign. Ballini was searching for battlefield relics. He found what he calls a “piastrino,” or the dog tag of a soldier.
It carried the name of John P. Vargo, an American from Syracuse.
Through the Internet, Ballini learned that Vargo had died during the war. Ballini kept going. He found an e-mail address for the Onondaga County Veterans Service Agency. He sent a message that outlined his discovery to Bob McLean, the agency director.
McLean opened the phone book, spotted several families named Vargo, and wrote each of them a letter.
In that way, in time for Memorial Day, the dog tag made it home.
“It’s just a little piece of metal,” said John Paul Vargo, of Liverpool, whose father named him for the uncle killed at Anzio. “But I think the sacrifice it represents will resonate for veterans and their families.”
His younger brother, Joe, received one of the letters from the county. With McLean’s help, Joe made contact with Ballini, who mailed the dog tag to the 
An undated photograph of John P. Vargo, a soldier from Syracuse killed in May 1944 in Italy at the battle of Anzio during World War II. Vargos. It retains small dents, which the brothers see as its source of power.
“This was touching (John Vargo’s) body at the moment that he died,” said Joe, 56. He gave the dog tag to his eldest brother, John, a Vietnam veteran. The Vargos assume the tag was torn from their 28-year-old uncle by the German artillery blast that killed him, and that it was buried with other artifacts of combat.
The younger John Vargo, 58, remains appreciative that Ballini cared enough to do a search. John and Joe had no chance to meet their uncle, who died before they were born. Their father, Andrew Vargo, never said much about the death of his brother. Andrew and the elder John were among seven siblings of that generation — six boys and a girl — raised in Syracuse amid the Great Depression.
As young men, the six Vargo brothers served in World War II. They had grown up in the Hawley-Green neighborhood. Their parents died young, causing the children to be placed in an orphanage or sent into foster care. After that childhood tumult, John and Joe wonder if the military offered stability for their father and uncles.
If so, it came with high risk. John was killed. His brother George lost part of his right leg in France, a wound that caused him pain for the rest of his life. Another brother, Joseph, was a military career man who retired in Texas. Before he died in 1983, he made sure that the body of John Vargo was removed from Italy and buried at a military cemetery at Fort Sam Houston.
In Syracuse, John, Joe and the rest of their family heard little about the uncle killed at Anzio. “My father had (John’s) Purple Heart, but it was always in the closet,” John said. “You didn’t talk about it.”
That silence fit the stoic nature of that generation, the Vargos say. After enduring a harsh childhood and going off to war, those who returned weren’t interested in looking back.
Even now, John and Joe don’t know much about their uncle. Family stories say John Vargo often rode a motorcycle. The younger John recalls going into the Teall Market as a child, where his appearance would trigger something wistful in the man behind the counter. The clerk had known and admired the older John Vargo, and he made a point of telling the boy how his uncle was “a tough guy.”
The Vargos would see the name of their uncle on a wall at the Onondaga County War Memorial, and their father held onto the Purple Heart, awarded after John was killed. That was as much as the nephews knew until a few months ago, when McLean sent his letter to Joe Vargo, executive director of Partners for Education & Business in Syracuse.
Joe quickly made e-mail contact with Ballini, who described himself as “impassioned of the search with the metal detector.” Ballini explained, step by step, how he found the relic. He expressed delight in making contact with the family, and he agreed to mail the “piastrino” to Joe.
The dog tag preserves the identity of the man who carried it, and Joe knew immediately where it belonged. To him, his brother John is walking proof of the kind of loyalty that matters. Their father rarely spoke of what he lost in the war, but he made a lasting gesture that said everything:
He loved John Vargo enough to give his first-born son his name.
Sean Kirst is a columnist with The Post-Standard. Call him at 470-6015, e-mail him at skirst@syracuse.com or visit his blog and forum at www.syracuse.com/kirst.
John Vergo, at left, with his brother, Joe Vargo, holds the Purple Heart and dog tag of their uncle, WWII veteran John P. Vargo, in the Memorial Hall at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse.