Corporal Isbell was a member of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in South Korea on April 25, 1951 and died while a prisoner on June 31, 1951. His name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. CPL Isbell's remains were recovered and identified in 2014.