Waterloo Times

Three former Iowa State University students were recognized for paying the ultimate sacrifice during their military service at the annual Gold Star Hall ceremony held this week in the Memorial Union Great Hall in Ames, Iowa.

"The Gold Star Hall ceremony honors Iowa State students who lost their lives in war," Iowa State said in a release. "Former students’ names are engraved on the Gold Star Hall walls if they attended Iowa State full-time for one or more semesters and died while in military service in a war zone."

This year's honorees included William Conrad Ostlund, Robert Abram Berwick and Donald T. Griswold Jr. They all served in World War II.

The Gold Star Hall displays the names of nearly 600 former Iowa State students who died in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Somalia and the Global War on Terrorism.

Monday's ceremony, which kicked off a week of honoring veterans, included stories of the three men, along with taped comments from ISU President Wendy Wintersteen.

Ostlund’s nephew Chris Ostlund shared a story about his uncle, saying the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor made him angry. 

“After Pearl Harbor, he enlisted and decided to go into the submarine service because he knew that was something that was difficult, and he thought the challenge would be great,” Chris Ostlund said, Radio Iowa reported.

Berwick studied chemistry at Iowa State from 1940 to 1943. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1943 and was killed on April 11, 1945, on the coast of Okinawa, the university release said. 

Griswold studied agronomy from 1936 to 1941. He joined the Navy in 1941 and was killed on June 6, 1942, during the Battle of Midway in the South Pacific, it said.

Ostlund studied agricultural business from 1936 to 1936. He joined the Navy in 1942 and was presumed dead in 1944 following the disappearance of his ship, the release said.