Corporal Gaines was a member of Battery A, 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy in South Korea on 12 February 1951. He was presumed dead on 6 January 1954. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.

Gaines 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.