Lost WWI medal returned to veteran's family in NJ

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

A military mystery in Wanaque NJ, dating back more than a hundred years, has finally been solved.

Tom Luciani and Janice Sannick discuss their cousin, Dan Battaglia, who was a World War I veteran and Wanaque resident. Police presented them with a medal that was found on the side of a road belonging to Battaglia. (Photo: Jai Agnish/Northjersey.com)Police in Wanaque, New Jersey have been working to return a lost medal from 1917, given to World War One veteran Dan Battaglia. The medal had been unearthed in a wooded area.

Battaglia was a bachelor with no kids, so police officers spent weeks digging into records and combing social media to try and find any relatives. As it turns out, his family was still living in the Wanaque area.

“It brought back memories,” relative Janice Sannik said. “We used to have him over for the holidays and, you know, the family was together.”

“All our policemen, they do a great job in this town,” relative Tom Luciani said. “We’re proud of them.”

Battaglia is a common family name, and 100-year-old records are hard to come by. For more than a month, local police had been assembling information to locate any remaining relative of the WWI veteran.

The Centennial Commission brought the case forward to our Special Advisor, Sergeant Major Bryan Battaglia, USMC-Retired, former Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sergeant Major Battaglia is not a known relative but he personally offered to safeguard the medal, if direct family members were not found.

Police were finally able to find relatives, who turned out to be distant cousins, after asking seniors in town if they knew Battaglia. Luckily, one veteran said yes.

According to a note to the U.S. WWI Centennial Commission, from Wanaque Police Department Captain Kenneth Fackina, "We returned the medal to two members of the Battaglia Family. Mrs. Janice Sannik and Mr. Tom Luciani came to headquarters for a meeting with the Chief and his command staff. The Medal was turned over to them and both promised it would be passed down through the generations so the Battaglia story would be told and more importantly, his service NEVER be forgotten."

Read more about the WWI medal return on the North Jersey.com web site here:

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