Cathedral of the Pines commemorated the anniversary of the nation’s first Memorial Day observance Saturday by honoring Korean War veteran and longtime Jaffrey resident Donald Nelson during its annual ceremony.
Rainy — and then snowy — skies moved the Cathedral of the Pines ceremonies indoors on Saturday morning, with a firing salute done outside of the Cathedral of the Pines Hill House.
The program included a reading of “In Flanders Fields” and the singing of “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America.”
The ceremony was also dedicated to Donald Nelson, a U.S. Army Korean War veteran and 30-year resident of Jaffrey. Don Nelson died at 95 in October 2025 and was laid to rest in the Cathedral of the Pines cemetery this spring.
His son, Master Sgt. Kent Nelson, spoke on his behalf during the ceremony, after accepting an American flag folded by the Rindge Veterans Association to honor his father.
Kent Nelson said he served in the Air Force from 1990 to 2010, including serving as a lab technician at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea, serving in the Air National Guard in Bangor, Maine, and serving as an engineering assistant in the 101st Air Refueling Wing’s Civil Engineering Squadron. While in the Air National Guard, he completed two tours in Iraq, including Kirkuk in 2004 and Camp Victory, Baghdad, in 2009.
Kent Nelson said his father had always loved the Cathedral of the Pines, having known of it since his days growing up in Peterborough. In one of the letters saved by his family, when he was writing home from Korea, he mentioned it:
“Still want to get over to the chapel in Rindge. One of the first things I’ll do. I certainly have a lot to be thankful for, and I want to express those thanks as directly as possible, and I think Rindge is just about as near to God as I can get,” Kent Nelson said, quoting from his father’s letter.
Kent Nelson said his father didn’t speak much about his time in the military to his children. He was a member of the 7th Infantry Division during combat in 1952, on the front lines in South Korea.
“He had some close calls from artillery rounds, sniper fire, and even accidental friendly fire from one of his buddies,” Kent Nelson said. “He always had a strong faith in the Lord, and while in combat, he carried a small Bible in his pocket. He had written a letter home one day, that the pocket Bible he carried had actually saved his life, as a stray enemy bullet hit it and bounced off.”
Before enlisting, he was attending college to become a broadcaster, and due to that experience, he eventually became part of a Special Service Unit, becoming a radio announcer for the American Forces Korea Network.
Speaking on the meaning of Memorial Day, Kent Nelson chose to use his father’s words, from a speech he wrote for a Memorial Day ceremony in 2014, which his son still had a copy of.
“To my fellow veterans, thank you for your service. Those of us who are veterans of recent wars, recognize full well that we follow in the footsteps of patriots dating back to the first, who took up arms to fight for our independence,” Kent Nelson quoted his father. “The men and women who served in generations before us leave a great legacy of which we are only temporary caretakers. I, for one, am grateful to have had a chance to carry that torch for a short time.”