Sergeant Hardman was a member of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in North Korea on December 2, 1950 and died while a prisoner on April 24, 1951. His remains were not recovered.

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Sergeant Kester B. Hardman were accounted for in 2024. His name is permanently inscribed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial.