Private First Class Jothen was a member of Battery A, 58th Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division. He was Killed in Action while fighting the enemy in North Korea on 19 July 1952. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.

Jothen was awarded the Purple Heart, 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.