Corporal Patten was a member of Headquarters Company, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy near Taejon, South Korea on July 20, 1950. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953.

Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Corporal Charles R. Patten were accounted for in 2023. His name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.