Corporal Cale was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in North Korea on December 2, 1950. He was presumed dead on January 15, 1954. His remains were not recovered. 

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