Vito was born on the 1st of December 1916 in Decatur, Illinois, and since his mother had died when he was young, he and four of his siblings were sent to an orphanage. Later he would work as a truck driver and a coal miner and he was 25 years old when the attacks at Pearl Harbor took place. Due to his poor eyesight, he was exempt from the draft: this didn’t stop Vito from enlisting in the US Army but it did limit him with what the Army would let him do. He began his time in service with the military police but was able to appeal for a transfer to an infantry unit and deployed to France with the 42nd Infantry Division as a cook. Vito was a Private First Class when he was volun-told to stand guard at the Battalion’s command post on the 9th of January 1945 and it was his actions over two straight days that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

He fought with extreme gallantry while guarding two command posts against the assault of powerful infantry and armored forces which had overrun the battalion's main line of resistance. On the close approach of enemy soldiers, he left the protection of the building he defended and set up his gun in the street, there to remain for almost 12 hours driving back attacks while in full view of his adversaries and completely exposed to 88-mm, machine-gun, and small-arms fire. He moved back inside the command post, strapped his machine gun to a table, and covered the main approach to the building by firing through a window, remaining steadfast even in the face of 88-mm fire from tanks only 75 yards away. One shell blasted him across the room, but he returned to his weapon. When two enemy personnel carriers led by a tank moved toward his position, he calmly waited for the troops to dismount and then, with the tank firing directly at him, leaned out of the window and mowed down the entire group of more than 20 Germans. Some time later, removal of the command post to another building was ordered. MSgt. Bertoldo voluntarily remained behind, covering the withdrawal of his comrades and maintaining his stand all night. In the morning he carried his machine gun to an adjacent building used as the command post of another battalion and began a day-long defense of that position. He broke up a heavy attack, launched by a self-propelled 88-mm gun covered by a tank and about 15 infantrymen. Soon afterward another 88-mm weapon moved up to within a few feet of his position, and, placing the muzzle of its gun almost inside the building, fired into the room, knocking him down and seriously wounding others. An American bazooka team set the German weapon afire, and MSgt. Bertoldo went back to his machine gun dazed as he was and killed several of the hostile troops as they attempted to withdraw. It was decided to evacuate the command post under the cover of darkness, but before the plan could be put into operation the enemy began an intensive assault supported by fire from their tanks and heavy guns. Disregarding the devastating barrage, he remained at his post and hurled white phosphorous grenades into the advancing enemy troops until they broke and retreated. A tank less than 50 yards away fired at his stronghold, destroyed the machine gun, and blew him across the room again, but he once more returned to the bitter fight and, with a rifle, singlehandedly covered the withdrawal of his fellow soldiers when the post was finally abandoned. With inspiring bravery and intrepidity MSgt. Bertoldo withstood the attack of vastly superior forces for more than 48 hours without rest or relief, time after time escaping death only by the slightest margin while killing at least 40 hostile soldiers and wounding many more during his grim battle against the enemy hordes.

Vito received his Medal of Honor, along with five other servicemembers, from President Truman on the 18th of December 1945 in a ceremony at the White House. He would finish his time in the Army in February of 1946 at the rank of Master Sergeant and went to work for the Veterans Affairs in Chicago and San Francisco. After twelve years, Vito left the VA to start a landscaping business and he was married twice. He had one son, David, with his first wife Dorothy, and he went on to serve in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Vito’s grandson, also named David, also served in the Army during the Gulf War. Sadly, Vito wouldn’t get to see his son return from the war: he died from cancer on the 23rd of July 1966 at the age of 49. Vito Rocco Bertoldo is buried with his second wife, Mae, in the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California: Section C, Grave 52-A.