Corporal Shaw was a member of Battery B, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. On December 6, 1950, his unit and the survivors of the 31st Infantry Regiment took defensive positions near the town of Hagaru-ri, North Korea. The onslaught of the Chinese forces was overpowering and Corporal Shaw was listed as Missing in Action. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.