Private First Class Wright was a member of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on November 29, 1950 and died while a prisoner on March 18, 1951. His remains were not recovered.

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Private First Class Robert J. Wright, Jr. were accounted for in 2023. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.