Tag Archives: Americal Division

Having lived a sheltered life in the serenity of Veneto and the bustle of Chicago, Natale Cusinato was thrown into the teeth of battle as a member of the U.S. Army’s famed Americal Division during World War II. Natale Cusinato was born in Chicago in April 1917, the son of Italian immigrants seeking opportunity in America. However, the promise of the American Dream proved difficult to sustain. Struggling with language, cultural barriers and economic hardship, his family eventually returned to Cittadella, a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, about 40 miles west of Venice. There, they lived as …