Mike Vitel was born on August 5, 1947, in Evergreen Park, Illinois. Evergreen Park is a small town southwest of Chicago. Most of his growing years were spent in Chicago and Cicero, Illinois.
At the age of fifteen, he moved with his family to LaGrange, Illinois, where he attended Lyons Township High School. Mike graduated in 1965. He worked for one year before he chose to join the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966.
