Private First Class Gustafson was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy on 6 July 1950. It was later disclosed he had been taken Prisoner of War, forced to march to North Korea on the "Tiger Death March" and died while a prisoner at Hanjang-ni, North Korea, of malnutrition on 21 December 1950. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.

Gustafson was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, 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.