Master Sergeant Crawford was a member of Battery C, 38th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on 30 November 1950 and died while a prisoner on 20 April 1951.

His remains were recovered on 3 November 2003 and identified on 28 September 2006. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.

Crawford was awarded Purple Heart, the Prisoner of War Medal, 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.