First Lieutenant Ball was a veteran of World War II. During the Korean War he was a member of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. He was listed as Killed in Action while fighting the enemy in Korea on November 27, 1950. 1LT Ball's remains have been recovered and identified in 2014. His name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.