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Students who died in battle added to the wall of names in Iowa State's Gold Star Hall

Robert Abram Berwick, Donald T. Griswold Jr., and William Conrad Ostlund all studied at the university in the 1930s and '40s. They all went on to serve in the Navy.

AMES, Iowa — Three names were added to the Gold Star Hall inside Memorial Union at Iowa State University.

It's a ceremony that happens around Veterans Day every year to memorialize the heroes we lost. All the names inside the hall are ISU students who died in a war zone.

Robert Abram Berwick, Donald T. Griswold Jr., and William Conrad Ostlund all studied at the university in the 1930s and '40s. They all went on to serve in the Navy in World War II. 

Berwick and Griswold died in battle and Ostlund was presumed dead after his ship disappeared. 

They now live on in Gold Star Hall. 

"It became a living, breathing memorial," said the Associate Director of Memorial Union, Brad Hill. "So for every conflict that has happened over the years that Iowa State has had students fall, fight and die in, we actually will induct those members into Gold Star Hall. And we will put their names on the wall within Memorial so that we can remember them throughout the years and the sacrifices that they've made."

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Their names were etched into the wall, joining nearly 600 other ISU students who died serving in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Somalia and the Global War on Terrorism.

"It's really important because the sacrifices these individuals have made, it pushed for what we do here with knowledge and sharing and making sure students have the freedom to be able to be who they want to and to serve the individuals that they want to serve or the country that they want to serve," Hill said. 

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