Staff Sergeant James L. Bruno, Jr., 23, was killed in action July 19, 1944 in Italy while serving with the 362nd Infantry Regiment, 91st Infantry Division.

He was born in Helper, Utah, March 27, 1921 to Italian immigrants Giacomo Bruno and Maria Teresa Bugni Bruno. His father was born in 1885, came to America in 1901, and Anglicized his first name to “James.” His mother was born in 1890 and emigrated in 1910. They were married in 1911.

Sergeant Bruno was the last of their five children, and the third to die young. His 17-year-old sister, Lucy, and his grandmother, Lucia Bruno, were killed in 1928 while walking on a sidewalk in Helper when a car swerved into them. His four-year-old brother, Laurence, died of a heart ailment in 1930.

He graduated from Helper Junior High School, Carbon County High School, and Carbon Junior College. He was working at the Peerless Coal mine in Peerless, Utah when drafted in November 1942. He trained in Oregon and went overseas in April 1944.

He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, presented posthumously to his family in a ceremony conducted by the American Legion at the Helper Civic Center September 23, 1945. He was initially buried in Italy, and his remains were returned to the States and interred at the Mountain View Cemetery in Helper in November 1948. His father died in 1965, his mother in 1972, and his last surviving sibling in 2003.

Two other men named Bruno from Carbon County died in the war. PFC Ernest Felix Bruno, Jr., was killed in action in the Battle of the Bulge December 29, 1944, and PFC Orlando S. Bruno was lost at sea when the troop ship HMT Rohna was sunk in the Mediterranean on November 26, 1943. Although not brothers, they may have been cousins. Each of their fathers was born in Italy. There were 40 to 50 people named Bruno in Carbon County just before and during the war, and about one-third of them were born in Italy.

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James L Bruno