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S/Sgt James Rotunno before he enlisted at Fort Dix, New Jersey on 26 January 1942.

He was officially declared dead one year and one day after he was reported missing in action.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on 4 October 2022 that S/Sgt. James Rotunno was accounted for on 27 September 2022.

The unit was engaged with German forces during the Battle of Reipertswiller in France and was surrounded, along with four other companies. The surrounded companies were given the order to attempt a breakout on 20 January 1945, but only two men made it through German lines. The rest were either captured or killed. Rotunno was among those killed in the aftermath on 21 January, but his body could not be recovered because of the fighting.

After the war, American Graves Registration Command (ARGC) personnel recovered 37 sets of unidentified American remains from around Reipertswiller. DPAA historians have been conducting on-going research into soldiers missing from combat around Reipertswiller and found that one set of those remains was a candidate for association with SSG Rotunno. Those unknown remains were disinterred in June 2021 and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available confirmed the association between the remains and SSG Rotunno.

He was given his final resting place at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, New Jersey on 22 April 2023.