Corporal Baer was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Taejon, South Korea on July 20, 1950, forced to march to North Korea on the "Tiger Death March" and died at "Apex Camp", Hanjang-ni, North Korea on December 3, 1950. His remains were not recovered. Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Cpl. Donald L. Baer were accounted for in 2017. His name is permanently inscribed in the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.