Corporal Pelletier was a member of Headquarters Battery, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Hoengsong, South Korea on February 13, 1951 and died while a prisoner on April 30, 1951. His remains were not recovered. From 1990 to 1994, North Korean representatives turned over a total of 208 boxes of remains reported to be unaccounted-for U.S. servicemen from the Korean War. On May 13, 1992, they turned over 15 boxes of remains. These remains were reportedly recovered from Namjong-gu, Suan County, North Hwanghae Province, where Pelletier was believed to have died. DNA analysis, as well as laboratory analysis, including anthropological and circumstantial evidence, were used in his identification in 2016. His name remains permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.