Bruno Viani was born in Greenwich Village in New York City in 1921. He grew up on a crowded street that was primarily inhabited by Italian-Americans. It was estimated that 2,000 people lived in the tenement buildings in the one block area where he lived. He grew up in the middle of the Depression and he spent the majority of his time on the streets. It was an interesting time. His father was in the construction business but suffered a severe head injury on the job when Viani was just six years old. His father was subsequently declared insane and institutionalized. Viani had two older brothers. His young mother had to then provide for the boys. His father did attempt to return home once, but it did not work out. Ultimately, his father would drown in the East River when Viani was 11 years old. Viani's mother was a strong and very religious woman who never complained. She loved America and made her own way. Viani attended high school in Manhattan. It was difficult times for the family but few people took welfare. Viani's mother worked at home until late hours in order to put food on the table. The population of his neighborhood was mostly Italian. People of Irish background were located in a different part of the city. The relationship between the two groups was contentious such that each stayed mainly in their own areas. Viani learned early in life how to take care of himself. The Italian-Americans took their politics very seriously. They were divided between supporting and not supporting Mussolini [Annotator's Note: Benito Mussolini was the Prime Minister and then Dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1945]. When the Italian air force under General Balboa [Annotator's Note: Italo Balboa] bombed Haile Selassie's Ethiopian forces at Abyssinia, the neighborhood stable owner near Viani put an effigy of Haile Selassie on the back of a wagon and paraded it down the street. The children ran alongside it to celebrate the Italian victory in Ethiopia. The Viani family was anti-Fascist and opposed to Mussolini. Most neighbors remained neutral because they did not know who might overhear what they were saying. There was also a fellow named Caesar who was a communist. He attempted to promote communism within the young people. He showed movies of how the communists took over power. There were numerous political influences on Viani at an early age. Viani recalls 40 or 50 individuals who he grew up with who all managed to survive the war except one. They served in various branches of the military. Some were wounded but only the one man died in an airplane crash in South America. They got together after the war and reviewed their actions during the conflict. After high school graduation, Viani worked for a dry cleaner. He subsequently joined the National Guard. He had only been working at the dry cleaner for five or six months when, on 15 October 1940, his Guard unit was called up for service.

Bruno Viani was in the 102nd Medical Regiment, Company B, 27th Infantry Division prior to the start of the war. As part of the National Guard, he was given a uniform and a dollar a night for each night of close order drill. Viani's National Guard unit was called up for service on 15 October 1940. He told his mother that he would be gone for a year [Annotator's Note: the typical duration for individuals called up prior to the troop ramp up for war.]. A law was passed that certain Guard divisions would be federalized. The 27th Division left for Alabama and basic training on 15 October 1940. Viani knew in his heart that he would not leave the Army before his entry into some kind of conflict. He spent four weeks on maneuvers in Tennessee in June 1941. The division returned to its base but then went on additional maneuvers in Louisiana and Arkansas in August and September 1941. It was there with the operations of the Red and Blue Armies [Annotator's Note: The opposing forces during the Louisiana Maneuvers] that he heard the name of Colonel Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: then Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower would go on to become leader of all Allied forces in the European Theater of Operations and later the 34th President of the United States]. While on maneuvers, the troops were told that when 15 October came around, they would not be discharged. Rather, their service would be extended for an additional six months. Some of the men formed what was called the OHIO Club. That was the abbreviation for Over the Hill in October. In July 1941, Congress extended the draft by a slender margin. That was lucky for America. Without that extension, two thirds of the officers would have been discharged and the Army would have been reduced to half of what it had been. No one foresaw that on 7 December [Annotator's Note: 1941] the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor. Viani had been in active service for 14 months prior to the entry of the United States into the war. Viani's memory of the day of the Japanese attack remains very vivid. He was with a mess sergeant named Gerald David and on the way to Sunday mass. Leaving mass, the two men were offered a meal by a lady. While at her home eating lunch with her and her family, the radio was turned on. That was when he received the word about the attack. The men returned to their camp. They were told that they were to ship out that night. That did not happen but the next day they shipped out to Gadsden, Alabama. They were loaded on railway flatcars and shipped out to Chicago. They proceeded on to California and Camp Haan near Riverside. As a staff sergeant, Viani slept with the officers on the train. Consequently, he had a much better accommodations in a Pullman car than a three stripe sergeant who had harassed him while he was a corporal. The three striper slept in coach instead of the Pullman [Annotator's Note: Viani laughs at the quirk of fate.]. The 102nd Regiment was made up of A and B Companies. There was a C Company but it was strictly on paper. It was being formed up using draftees. Camp Haan was their destination. The 27th Infantry Division was one of the first divisions to ship out. They went from Fort Ord, California to Hawaii to serve as protection for the islands. Viani was a medic at the time. The division was a square division with multiple regiments similar to a World War 1 configuration. There were four infantry, three artillery, and single medical, quartermaster, and engineer regiments with a signal corps battalion. The 20,000 men were subdivided into two brigades with a major general in charge. A brigadier general was over each of the two brigades. The last unit shipped out to Honolulu on an English ship. Viani saw the destruction left by the Japanese upon arrival in Hawaii. Viani's outfit dug in on Maui on about 20 April 1942. He heard about the Battle of Midway in June 1942 and one of the first island battles at Guadalcanal in latter 1942. It was thought that the Japanese might attempt to capture the islands so the men dug holes for protection. They were issued Springfield rifles [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1903 Springfield rifle]. After the Japanese lost about three aircraft carriers at Midway, the tide was turned. The men began to breathe easier after the enemy threat to invade Hawaii was not as severe as they previously anticipated.

Bruno Viani was asked by his company commander if he would consider applying for OCS [Annotator's Note: Office Candidate School]. He was a staff sergeant at the time. He previously indicated that his first choice was to be a medic and his second choice was as an infantryman. He fell in love with the rifle and really enjoyed it [Annotator's Note: while posted on Maui as a medic in the 102nd Medical Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, Viani had been issued an M1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle to help defend the island against a potential Japanese assault]. Viani returned to the United States after nearly six months on Maui [Annotator's Note: approximately October 1942]. He landed in San Francisco and made his way across the country to Fort Benning, Georgia for his training as an infantry officer candidate. He survived the three months of drilling and training and received his commission as a second lieutenant in January 1943 then was granted a leave to return home. He was teased by an old buddy about whether he should be saluted while he was home. After the leave, he returned to Camp Wheeler near Macon, Georgia where he trained recruits. He trained draftees on a 16 week cycle to fire an M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle] and machine guns. Soon, he was promoted to first lieutenant and became a company executive officer. After several months, Viani was sent to Florida to do more draftee training. He had enough of the training of recruits. At that juncture, he informed his company commander that he wanted to volunteer for a combat unit. Viani was sent to the 100th Infantry Division. [Annotator's Note: a portion of the interview is not audible.] There was more training for Viani. With his skill with the '03 rifle [Annotator's Note: slang for the .30 caliber M1903 Springfield rifle], the battalion commander spotted him spinning his rifle. The 100th Division had been asked to form a provisional battalion to promote the War Bond Drive of June 1944. Along with about 800 other men, Viani was sent to New York to help raise funds for war bonds. Viani was handpicked to be the drill master for the two companies. He had three squads with 24 expert infantrymen who would perform at Rockefeller Center at five o'clock each day. This assignment went on for four weeks. It was a plum job. It even included a drum and bugle unit. In August 1944, he returned to his unit and prepared to ship out for England. Orders were changed. The 100th Division was to join the 7th Army for transfer to the Mediterranean. They were to land in Marseille. The journey across the ocean was bad. There were six ships in the convoy. Viani was on the George Washington. It was originally a German ship that was taken over by the Allies in World War 1. It was the same ship that took Woodrow Wilson to Europe for the Versailles Treaty. Viani has no memory of those seven days of his life. They were the worst seven days of his life. Two ships almost collided. One ship had a very bad list. The North Atlantic in October 1944 was particularly bad. A good point was that the American Navy had found ways to detect German u-boats so the threat from submarines was not too bad. The convoy made its way to Marseille.

Bruno Viani spent about a week in Marseilles after his arrival. There was a dock strike there so the troops helped unload the ships. He found himself doing a bit of everything while in the service. Previously, as a staff sergeant at Camp Haan, California, Viani had even put several Texans in quarantine for two weeks. By the time Viani and the 100th Infantry Division landed in France, the Germans were retreating. The division joined the 36th Infantry Division from Texas and formed the 7th Army along with the regular Army 3rd Infantry Division. They were attacking the Germans who were pulling back to the Vosges Mountains near Alsace-Lorraine. The enemy knew they could not hold Normandy and that part of France. The 7th Army met up with the 45th Infantry Division. The 45th had been on the line for quite a long time. The 399th Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: the 399th was Viani's regiment] served as point and arrived at the Rhine River first. There was not much resistance. There were snipers and one found Viani and wounded him near St. Remy on 6 November 1944. He was hit in the left shoulder. The bullet lodged in the middle of his chest. He spun around and fell. He was conscious until nightfall despite his significant loss of blood. His men withdrew their lieutenant. He had a compound fracture of his femur with the bone protruding out. His left arm was just hanging like a piece of meat with no movement or control. He was given an airplane split which was from the waist up. He was taken to 93rd General Hospital then the 21st General Hospital. German aircraft bombed the facility one night. The attack resulted in only minor casualties. Viani was supposed to be taken to England but ended up in [Annotator's Note: inaudible city name] in France in the 3rd General Hospital. Viani returned to the United States on a hospital ship and had the good fortune to meet a plastic surgeon named Major Moore [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] in Halloran General Hospital. Using Viani's own skin and fascia, he reconstructed his arm. He was treated by a Major Katz [Annotator's Note: no given name provided] who elected to leave the bullet fragment embedded in Viani for two months then gave it to him as a souvenir. Viani was in the hospital when the war ended on 8 May [Annotator's Note: the war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945] and then in August [Annotator's Note: August 1945] with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The men were exuberant with the end of the wars. The men were given a pass to leave the hospital.

Bruno Viani was discharged out of Halloran Hospital in 1945. He had served in the military since before the United States' entrance into World War 2. He had joined the National Guard and then sent to Hawaii to help defend the islands against enemy attack. He had returned to the United States to become an Army master drill sergeant and toured throughout New York City. He had volunteered for combat and was wounded in France. After his convalescence, he was discharged. In retrospect, it is remarkable that a divided country like America could prevail. It was due in large part to General Marshall [Annotator's Note: General George C. Marshall was the Chief of Staff for the Department of the Army from 1939 to 1945] going before Congress to request an extension of the draft prior to the start of the war. Men were drafted between the ages of 21 and 29. In 1942, President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] signed an executive order to reduce the age of qualification to 18 years of age. Viani had the good fortune as a result of his association to meet many young draftees who entered the ASTP, Army Specialized Training Program. They qualified because of their intelligence and high IQ. Later, 3,500 to 4,000 would become part of the 100th Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: many trainees became combat infantry replacements in Viani's 399th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division]. Viani would meet some of them much later in life when he would have the pleasure of associating with them for a decade or so in the Division Association. They had high IQs but would end up in the division as basic infantrymen. Their postwar careers would be in varied professions. Some were doctors, professors and successful businessmen. They were the nucleus of the 100th Division Association. After the war, Viani was in sales and changed jobs frequently. He was recruited by a friend to sale beverages. He was promoted in the field and would spend 25 years in the beverage business. He became a wine connoisseur as a result. He married and had three children. The couple had a wonderful life together before she passed. Viani hopes that the young people in America protect the democracy and freedom of the country. They must remember that politicians work for them not vice versa. The young Americans should get involved and protect our democracy as was done 70 years ago.