Sergeant Cavender was a member of Headquarters Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy in North Korea on November 28, 1950. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953. 

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Sergeant William E. Cavender were accounted for in 2020. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.