Joseph Romano was born in May 1923 in Marrero [Annotator's Note: Marrero, Louisiana]. Growing up, there were poor people with hardly anything to eat for a long time. His father did a little farming. He went to school when teachers were teachers. They got nothing for Christmas. He got along in school and the teacher liked him. The teachers and students respected each other. He was working [Annotator's Note: when he heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He says he was dragged into the Army but that he went peacefully, and he fought for his country. It was scary to go into the Army. Bullets all around his head. He slept underground for four months. At Anzio [Annotator's Note: Anzio, Italy], he and three other guys stayed in their holes, scared. That was a rough battle. The Germans hit a hole where his friends were. He was the only alive. He went to Cassino [Annotator's Note: Cassino, Italy]. He pulled guard duty at night in Africa. He walked in circles so nobody could get behind him. There were a bunch of thieves there. The British were camped next to them and they would steal stuff too.

Joseph Roman was in Africa for a few months before going to Naples, Anzio, Apennines – all over [Annotators Note: Italy]. Bullets were passing by his head like bumblebees. He was a gun loader for a tank. He had gone to Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: Camp Shelby, Mississippi], then Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and then Fort Knox [Annotator’s Note: Fort Knox, Kentucky]. He took a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] to Africa. He was worried about getting a piano wire around the neck. He was talking to a buddy who fell dead right beside him. He had gotten shot. He saw a lot of dead, swollen Germans. Italy was his first combat. They could not eat because the Germans would start up with artillery. Every night, he had to go to no man's land [Annotator's Note: an area of unoccuppied ground between the static positions of oppossing forces]. Every two to three minutes, he had to spray bullets in case anyone was sneaking up on them. He was treated well in Italy because his name is Romano. Pizza was brought to him. He ate with the Mayor. He went through all of Italy. He was near the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They did not knock it down because it was a relic. They were supposed to. He was there where Mussolini [Annotator's Note: Italian fascist dictator Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini; also know as il Duce] got killed [Annotator's Note: Guilino, Italy]. It was beautiful there. He was on reconnaissance duty. There was a secluded building with a bed he claimed, and a fellow soldier hit him over the head with a .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol]. The man stood over him and pulled the trigger, and the gun snapped. Soldiers do not carry unloaded guns. Romano had a lot of people praying for him. He has a lot of friends. If he dies, and they leave the funeral home open, they would knock the walls down. He has been selling insurance since 1949. He belongs to the VFW [Annotator's Note: Veterans of Foreign Wars], American Legion, and the Italian Society. After being hit in the head by the fellow soldier, they went to court and Romano won. He does not know what happened to the soldier.

Joseph Romano went to Germany after Italy. He was on guard duty there. He went to Le Havre, France from there. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him about the Po valley, Italy, offensive in the spring of 1945.] All he can remember is artillery and bullets buzzing by his ears like bees. He remembers the convoy. It rained every day. He went everywhere in Italy. They did not put all of that on his discharge. He was a sharpshooter. He made his bullets count. Everywhere he went, he filled his pocket with biscuits. They were surrounded and the Japanese saved them because his pockets were full of biscuits. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him about fighting alongside the Japanese-Americans of the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Combat Team.] He was with the 92nd Division, Buffalos [Annotator's Note: the mostly African-American 92nd Infantry Division; known as the Buffalo Soldiers], all of that is lies. They did nothing and were not heroes. Every time one black got killed and 40 whites got killed, they went on about the black but said nothing about the whites. It is the same now. [Annotator's Note: Romano rants about musicians until the interviewer brings him back to the war.] Romano thought the Germans were super people. They made him believe they were the super race. Now we have no heroes at all. White people have no heroes at all. All he has left is John Wayne [Annotator's Note: Marion Michael Morrison; American actor]. The Germans were very clean people. They did not want war any more than we did. They were forced.

Joseph Romano had mixed feelings about going home. He got disappointed when he went to Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer, New Jersey]. He had been fighting a war and he had to borrow a jacket to go home. Thieves took all of his medals and his jacket. Romano thought his mother was dying and left the Army. They tried to get him off the front line, but the Army would not let him go. He liked the Army. He was very nervous when he got home. He could not sit down for a minute. He went back to work and went to school at night. He met his wife. She was a model and he was a good looking guy. She was beautiful. They have been married 66 years. They lost two kids due to a blood condition. [Annotator's Note: Romano asks the interviewer questions.] He had dreams of combat when he got home. He still dreams of driving a school bus too. He has funny dreams.

Joseph Romano's most memorable war experience was being hit over the head with a pistol by a fellow soldier. He did not decide to fight, he was drafted. He was working when war was declared. Some people say they are no good because of the war. That is baloney. They were no good when they went in. The war made a man out of him. [Annotator's Note: Romano talks about people excusing bad behavior due to being poor.] His service means a lot to him. He got to see the world that people have to pay a fortune to do. Romano feels that the war was fought for nothing, because the country got worse. He thinks the man did a beautiful job. [Annotator's Note: On The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. He compliments the interviewer about how wonderful it is that she is doing this work.] He refuses nobody and he feels good about his life. He feels that when he dies, it is going to be a loss. He lives a good, clean life. He does not smoke or drink.

Joseph Romano has stories, but it is like going to confession and forgetting your sins. He has a lot of experience. Minor stuff like mines exploding, going out late at night on patrol and not knowing what is waiting for you. They do not put that on a discharge. He was in Combat Command A [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, Combat Command A, 1st Armored Division] at Fort Knox [Annotator's Note: Fort Knox, Kentucky]. He was the guy who put that hot shell in a gun that comes out burning like fire. He was fast, real fast. He has a lot he wants to share but he just forgets. People are not interested in what he has to say. He was supposed to marry a girl that looked like Jean Harlow [Annotator's Note: American actress]. When he met his wife, that was it. He loves her and she is the best thing that ever happened to him. He got cancer and she took care of him. He's had a wonderful wife.