Kenneth Shadrick was born on August 4, 1931, in Harlan County, Kentucky. During his sophomore Pineville High School, with an interest in football, after making the team, Shadrick's father gave him five dollars to buy a uniform which was stolen from his locker and upset Shadrick so much he dropped out of school and one month later, he and a friend enlisted in the United States Army. Shadrick completed this training in February 1949, and sailed for Japan to join the 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, for post–World War II occupation duties. Shadrick spent a year on Kyushu Island with the division. He was sent to Korea and was a part of Task Force Smith. Shadrick was killed by the machine gun fire while engaging a North Korean T-34 tank with a bazooka, and his body was taken to an outpost where journalist Marguerite Higgins was covering the war, who later reported that he was the first soldier killed in the war, a claim that was repeated in media across the United States. However, since the identities of other soldiers killed before Shadrick remain unknown, he is still often incorrectly cited as the first US soldier killed in the war.