First Lieutenant Mitchell was the Assistant Operations Officer of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. He had served as Executive Officer of Company H and had recently been transferred. On the night of 29 November 1950, he was leading a group of 50 reinforcements to Company H near Hagaru-ri, North Korea when his group was fired upon and he was killed by machine gun fire.

For his leadership and valor, First Lieutenant Mitchell was awarded the Silver Star Medal, the Navy Commendation Ribbon with Combat "V", the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.