Corporal Butler was a member of Company C, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on November 28, 1950 and died while a prisoner on January 27, 1951. His remains were not recovered.

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Corporal Billy Joe Butler were accounted for in 2019. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.