Corporal Gendilo was a member of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Chochiwon, South Korea on July 12, 1950, forced to march to North Korea on the "Tiger Death March", and was killed by a guard while a prisoner on the march near Chunggang-jin, North Korea on November 4, 1950. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.