Private Adkins was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 65th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. On July 17, 1953, he was Killed in Action while on a combat patrol to reconnoiter enemy activity in an area north of the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), North Korea, when it came under attack, forcing withdrawal back to friendly lines. As a result of the fighting, PVT Adkins was reported missing in action. His remains were among those contained in 208 boxes of co-mingled remains turned over to the U.S. by the North Koreans in 1990 and 1994. Private Adkins were accounted for by DPAA in 2016.

Private Adkins is interred at a private cemetery in Hinton, West virginia. PFC Adkins' name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, HI.