Master Sergeant Mathews was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Chochiwon, South Korea on July 11, 1950, forced to march to North Korea on the "Tiger Death March", and died while a prisoner during the march from Manpo to Chunggang-jin, North Korea on February 28, 1951. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.