Corporal Heilman was a member of Battery B, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Hoengsong, South Korea on February 13, 1951 and died while a prisoner on June 8, 1951. His remains were not recovered at the time. Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Cpl. Heilman were accounted for in 2017. His name remains permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.