Hospital Corpsman First Class Payne was assigned to the 1st Marine Division. He was Killed in Action while tending his wounded comrades on December 1, 1950. At the time, his remains were not recovered. Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Hospital Corpsman 1st Class William G. Payne were accounted for in 2017. His name remains permanently inscribed in the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.