Major Uurtamo was a member of Headquarters Battery, 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery (Automatic Weapons) Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on December 1, 1950 and died while a prisoner on January 21, 1951. His remains were not recovered. Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Maj. Stephen T. Uurtamo were accounted for in 2017. His name is permanently inscribed in the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.