Corporal Actkinson was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy along the eastern shore of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea on December 2, 1950. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953. 

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Corporal Marvin Deroy Actkinson were accounted for in 2021. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.