Corporal Velez-Montes was a Light Weapons Infantryman with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy on "Old Baldy Hill" in the Chorwon Area of North Korea on September 18, 1952. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.