News Service

11-06-09

ISU Gold Star Hall ceremony honors fallen Korean War soldier from Plover

AMES, Iowa -- A Veterans Day observance at Iowa State University will honor seven former students whose names have been added to the Gold Star Hall, the war memorial in the university's Memorial Union. One was a soldier from Plover, William Ward Sharp, who died in the Korean War.

Former students are eligible for name-placement in Gold Star Hall if they graduated or attended Iowa State full time for one or more semesters, and died while in military service in a war zone. The university has recently identified several who had not been identified in previous searches. As names become known, they are added to the wall and the soldiers are remembered in the Gold Star Hall Ceremony on Veterans Day.

Iowa State is able to memorialize Sharp on Veterans Day thanks to the help of his brother Charles Sharp, both of Rolfe, who shared his memories.

Sharp was born on July 16, 1931, to Ward and Hazel Sharp. He was one of six children in the family, who farmed in the Plover area. Sharp graduated from Plover High School in 1949 and went to Iowa State to study agricultural education in the winter of 1951. He planned to pursue studies, then farm with his brother Charles.

Sharp's plans changed after the outbreak of the war in Korea. He was drafted to serve, and went into the Army in October 1952. Sharp was shipped out to Japan the following April before being sent to Korea in May.

Just two months later, on July 6, 1953, Sharp was listed as missing in action in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill. Sharp's company was holding the hill when the Chinese attacked it. Within an hour, they were in hand-to-hand combat in the trenches. It was assumed that Sharp died in the first assault. The battle was fought in a persistent monsoon rain for the first three days, making both resupply and evacuation of casualties difficult. After five days, United Nations Command conceded Pork Chop Hill to the Chinese. Sharp's status as MIA was changed to presumed dead on July 7, 1954, although his body has not been recovered. He was awarded a Purple Heart and Korean War Service Medal.

Sharp is one of more than 8,000 American servicemen missing and unaccounted for from the war in Korea. POW-MIA Day, held annually the third Friday of September, honors those who have never returned. Each year, Iowa State University's ROTC cadets stand an honor guard in the Gold Star Hall of the Memorial Union in memory of those soldiers. Now they will stand guard for William Sharp.

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