Vincent S. Graziano

Vincent S. Graziano was born in 1926 to first generation Italian immigrants in Passaic, New Jersey. He was very close to his many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Graziano’s large and tight-knit family played a central role in his upbringing.

Graziano entered high school in the fall of 1940. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, he was still too young to serve. Graziano recalled hearing of the bombing as being horrible, and reacting with disbelief that someone could perpetrate such a surprise attack. These feelings drove his desire to support the war effort, but his mother would not allow him to drop out of school to enlist. While he was kept from joining the war effort, his brother and many of his elder cousins entered the military. Graziano closely followed the service of these family members through the stories his aunts and uncles shared.

The entry of the US into World War II had a marked impact on the home front, which Graziano witnessed while finishing his education. Both the Curtiss-Wright propeller and motor divisions each operated factories near his childhood home, and began to operate through the night without pause. He recalled that the Motor Division would test newly manufactured motors even in the early hours of the morning, despite the incredible amount of noise such tests generated.

A nearby sheet metal shop began to produce pipe frameworks to be used in the construction of Liberty ships. Freight trains ran unceasingly through the neighborhood carrying tanks, jeeps, mortars, howitzers, and other equipment towards ports of embarkation, where they would be transported overseas.

Despite being unable to join the Army, Graziano contributed to the war effort on the home front, serving as an air raid warden during the early part of the war. In this capacity, he wore a repainted World War I helmet, as he went through his neighborhood ensuring that no windows were lit during air raid drills. Graziano recalled that he rarely had to ask for lights to be turned out, due to the seriousness with which people treated the threat of a potential air raid. This serious attitude, he said, was influenced by the apprehension of German spies on American soil, after their having landed via U-boat on the shore of Long Island.

After graduating from high school in the spring of 1944, Graziano was drafted into the US Army in September; but, due to a leg injury, his entry into the service was deferred to July 1945. After induction, he was sent to Fort Dix for basic training. The transition from civilian life to military life, and its discipline, was at first difficult for Graziano. Only after weeks of training did he settle into and become comfortable with the routines.

Following the completion of his Basic training, Graziano was transferred to the Infantry Replacement Center at Camp Blanding, Florida. At Camp Blanding, he received training in the operations of crew-served heavy weapons, including heavy machine guns and mortars. Graziano recalled that while fighting in the European theater had ceased, the war in the Pacific continued, and the nature of its ultimate conclusion remained uncertain to many Americans. He and his fellow trainees were told that, upon the completion of their training, they would be sent to join the Battle of Okinawa, and afterwards go on to the possible invasion of the Japanese home islands. Despite the daunting nature of this assignment, Graziano was indifferent to the potential danger of going to the front, instead thinking only of doing what he had to do.

The deployment would never come to pass however, as Imperial Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, bringing the war to an end before Graziano’s training was completed. While he did not like the idea of atomic weapons, he commended President Truman for ordering their use. Graziano believed that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a necessary step towards ending the war as quickly as possible, and therefore saved the lives of many young Americans.

After completing his heavy weapons training and returning home on furlough in December 1945, Graziano was sent to Camp Pickett, Virginia. At Pickett, he recalled that the ending of the war in the Pacific had left the Army unsure of where to assign him. In order to alleviate this issue, Graziano was offered the opportunity to resign from his two-year term as a draftee, and to enlist in the Regular Army for a term of one year, to which he agreed. After enlisting in the Regular Army, he was transferred to Ft. Hancock, New Jersey and again to Ft. Monmouth, spending a few weeks at each post without receiving an assignment.

Eventually this period of aimlessness came to an end as Graziano received notice that he would be sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, the post that channeled men to the ports of embarkation in New York Harbor. He boarded a ship for Livorno, Italy with the ultimate destination of the Allied Headquarters for the Mediterranean Theatre in Caserta Palace. On Graziano’s second day at sea however, mechanical difficulties crippled the troop transport he was aboard, forcing it to limp back into port in Staten Island.

In order to circumvent a regulation requiring furlough to be granted to personnel returning to shore after being more than 12 miles out to sea, a ramp was erected which directly connected the damaged transport to its replacement vessel. This allowed Graziano and his fellow passengers to be transferred between ships without setting foot on the pier!

Upon his arrival at Allied Headquarters in the Caserta Royal Palace, Graziano was immediately struck by the beauty of the landscape and the Palace itself. He recalled admiring the Palace’s architecture and grounds, especially the Grand Cascade, waterfalls which came down from the nearby mountain and both irrigated terraced gardens and fed resplendent fountains. These gardens also contained many beautiful works of statuary, many of which had been decapitated by gunfire at some point before Graziano’s arrival. While the Italian government had stripped the palace of its valuable furniture and artworks, the frescoes which adorned the throne room ceiling remained intact. Graziano often went to the throne room, simply to admire their beauty. While in Italy, he wished to travel on leave to Sicily, where his family had originated from. However, Sicily was the only part of Italy forbidden to Headquarters personnel, due to persistent unrest, as well as the commonality of pro-German sympathies among its population, rendering the island unsafe. Despite his efforts to organize a party of men large enough to overcome this restriction, Graziano was ultimately unsuccessful.

Graziano recalled Allied Headquarters to be a relatively small command, being comprised of no more than 200 men, in addition to the accompanying military police and the personnel attached to the motor pool. The Headquarters was jointly administered by the Allied powers, being manned primarily by British and American personnel, with the Americans being in the position of leadership.

Graziano was assigned to run the publication office of the Headquarters. In this role, he was entrusted with storing the records and letters of the commanding general, copying orders for dissemination, and putting out notifications relating to the absences of Headquarters personnel. The staff of the publication office was made up of three Italian civilians, hired by the Headquarters to aid in the performance of these duties. Graziano recalled maintaining very friendly relations with the Italian staff, being able to converse with them in English which all three spoke very well.

As head of the publication office, Graziano began his day by reading the orders received in the morning mail, determining what needed to be copied or stored, and passing along the relevant documents to the Italian typist, who would prepare the stencils necessary to make copies. These stencils were proofread by Graziano and, once corrected, fed into the mimeograph machine. Once the copies were completed, they were distributed to the necessary personnel via messenger.

Beyond the Italian civilians working in the publication’s office, Graziano rarely had substantial interactions with the local population. Of the interactions he did have, he recalled even fewer as being particularly friendly; with the exception of a dinner which he attended alongside a friend from the motor pool.

Graziano remembered one other significant interaction with the local people. The United Service Organizations operated an office nearby to Caserta, from which they distributed food to the men of Allied Headquarters. Local children would gather outside this office in order to beg soldiers for pieces of food. Graziano recalled that many of these children had lost arms and legs in the course of the war, oftentimes accidentally finding and detonating unexploded hand grenades while playing in the fields around their homes.

In defiance of warnings from his superiors, Graziano would sneak extra food, often donuts and apples, out of the office to give to the children. He recalled being only 18 years old himself at the time, and feeling compelled to feed the children, a sentiment which was shared by many of his fellow soldiers. “We used to catch heck all the time: ‘You can’t do that. They’ll be bothering you every day.’ Who cares!”

After six months as the head of the publication office, Graziano’s term in the Regular Army came to an end. In an attempt to retain his services, the Major who oversaw his office offered him a deal. If Graziano agreed to re-enlist for another year, he would be given a 30-day furlough in Switzerland and, upon his return, would be sworn in as a Second Lieutenant, as his position in the publications office now required an officer of that rank. Graziano, however, had begun to deeply miss his home and family, and thus declined the Major’s offer, leaving both Caserta and the Army in January of 1947.

Graziano’s second voyage across the Atlantic was no less fraught than his first, as the transport encountered rough seas, being at one point assailed by waves reaching 40 feet in height. He, along with most of the men aboard the transport, experienced severe sea-sickness throughout the journey – a condition made even worse by the cramped accommodations that necessitated they sleep in bunks five beds high. The unpleasantness of the crossing was somewhat alleviated for Graziano by his homecoming. As the transport pulled into port on Staten Island, he recalled being surprised to hear his name being called from the dock. Looking at the crowd gathered there, Graziano realized that it was comprised of his family and friends, and that they were attempting to draw his attention to the presence of his parents, who had come to welcome him home.

After being discharged from the Army, Graziano used only part of the benefits he received through the GI Bill, at first taking courses in International Correspondence, and then in the installation of ceramic tile. Ultimately, he settled into a career as a letter carrier for the Post Office which would last 26 years. In 1951, Graziano married; and, together with his wife they opened a hobby shop in Clifton, which became his passion and primary place of employment after retiring from the Postal Service in 1972. He later became deeply involved with the Manasquan VFW, serving as its president for a term of 4 years. As a civilian, Graziano returned to Italy five times, visiting many parts of the country alongside his wife, but never returning to the Royal Palace at Caserta.

Vincent S. Graziano was awarded the World War II Victory Medal and the Army of Occupation Medal for his service during and after World War II. 

Graziano passed away peacefully in his home at 88 years of age on June 1, 2015.