Private First Class Gonzales was a member of Company C, 3rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 24th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Taejon, South Korea on July 20, 1950, forced to march to North Korea on the "Tiger Death March", and died while a prisoner at Hanjang-ni, North Korea on December 29, 1950. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.