Sergeant Kovalcheck was a member of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy in North Korea on December 12, 1950. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953. His name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. SGT Kovalcheck's remains were recovered and identified in 2014.