Posted by XXXXXXXXXX on April 22, 2008:

John Martin Nelson NO. 16662 CLASS OF 1948 KILLED IN ACTION, AUGUST 10, 1950, IN KOREA AGED 24 YEARS MARTY NELSON, who had everything to live for, and the gallantry to lose his life in pursuit of a great ideal, was killed August 10, 1951, near Chinju while leading an Infantry patrol in the defense of the Pusan perimeter. Marty, the oldest son of Colonel and Mrs. O. A. Nelson, was born twenty-four years ago in Syracuse, New York. He spent his first fifteen years in various Coast Artillery posts, until we entered World War II. He finished his high school at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse and, upon graduation, he entered Syracuse University. A year later, he joined the Army and within a few months, in July 1944, he entered West Point. While at the Academy he took part in about every activity available, and he was a mainstay of the Company D-l intramural athletic teams. After graduation in 1948 he went to Fort Riley with moat of his Class. At Christmas, 1948, he married Miss Virginia Doyle of Syracuse, and after the wedding they went to Fort Benning. In August Marty sailed for Japan where he was assigned to the 25th Division. A year later he was in Korea. At present Mrs. Nelson lives in Syracuse with their daughter, Kathleen Martin, who was born in November 1949. Marty's parents are now stationed in Whittier, Alaska, with their youngest son, Ola. Another son, Tom, is a cadet at West Point. Marty's death conveys a real sense of loss to anyone who knew him. For those of us who loved him, his death leaves a gap in our hearts that time cannot heal. The ways of God are strange. It is sometimes difficult to understand why He would take from us in his youth a person whom so many held in such high regard. Marty was a loving husband and father, devoted to his wife and baby. He was a source of pride to his parents and a hard-to-equal example to his brothers. His ability to rise to the top of his profession on the basis of his qualifications for leadership was already evident in his boyhood, though he had little chance to demonstrate it in his short life. If he knew he was good, he kept it to himself. His list of friends is long. He was very popular and was much in demand in any group of his associates. He had a fine sense of humor and loved a good time and, though conscientious about his duties, he was never one to worry much about the future. We so often said of him: "Don't worry about Marty — he can take care of himself." We know he took care of himself at Chinju. He was not a man, with the responsibilities of life which he had assumed, to throw away his life heedlessly. To our most gratifying comfort we know that he took care of himself all through his life. Perhaps, after all, the ways of God are not so strange. Like us, He wants to be surrounded by those He loves. — Cadet Thomas W. Nelson, his brother

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