Sergeant Belden was a rifleman in the Security Platoon, Headquarters Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. On December 1, 1950 while defending his position near Haggaru, North Korea, he was shot in the back and placed in a truck for evacuation. The convoy was ambushed and he was listed as Missing in Action. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953. 

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Sergeant Howard Richard Belden were accounted for in 2021. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.