He was born in Shreveport on Laura Street, in a neighborhood called "Little Italy." His father, Sam Restivo, and mother, Josephine, were both natives of Italy. Sam was a shoemaker, but suffered an accident "while he was a young man," Dominick recalls, and was confined most of his life to a mental institution. His mother raised her seven children, with Dominick helping out by selling scrap metal, newspapers, candy, and soft drinks. So difficult were times that some family meals consisted of watermelon and bread. Dominick attended Fair Park High School for one year. In 1943 he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and was sent to a camp in Oregon, where he helped plant and cut trees and build airport revetments. He recalls being paid $30 a month, of which $22.50 was sent to his mother. Dominick entered the U.S. Army in October of 1943. Trained as a rifleman, he shipped out to Milne Bay, New Guinea on the USS Monticello. While in New Guinea, his unit helped rescue missionaries in Hollandia who had been held as prisoners by the Japanese. Dominick went on to the Philippines, participating in the invasion of Leyte on October 22, 1944, as a member of Company G, Thirty-Fourth Infantry Regiment, Twenty-Fourth Infantry Division. Dominick fought for two months on Leyte, a significant part of it in mopping up. "There's where all the fighting is," he says. "You had to root them out of holes, caves, and everything." He later fought on Luzon, undergoing terrific shelling at ZigZag Pass. Shrapnel came so near he says he could "feel the heat of it." He entered the occupation of Japan before earning enough points to rotate home. He was discharged at Camp Fannin in late 1945. In 1950 he volunteered for duty in Korea, where he served nine months in 1952 in the Fifth Regimental Combat Team of the Twenty-Fourth Division. He spent another nine months in Japan with the First Cavalry Division. After his discharge at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Dominick worked in manufacturing, sheet metal, and construction before joining Cass Metal where he spent eighteen years before retiring.