Belisario de Jesus "Bel" Flores is from San Antonio, Texas. He served from January 1945 to August 1946. He remained stateside for the war. He did not want to, but it was not meant for him to go to war. He went to different technical schools for his service. His parents came from Mexico in the 1920s and settled in Eagle Pass [Annotator's Note: Eagle Pass, Texas]. Flores' grandfather was involved in the Revolution [Annotator's Note: Mexican Revolution, 20 November 1910 to 21 May 1920] and his party was overthrown. His grandfather was scheduled to be shot with no trial. He was a Mason [Annotator's Note: a member of Freemasonry, a fraternal organization] and there were few of them in Mexico. A few members of his Masonic Lodge [Annotator's Note: the basic organizational unit of Freemasonry] sprung him from jail in Piedras Negras, Coahuila [Annotator's Note: Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico]. Flores' father had visited him with a message from his friends that he should be ready. They tied a rope to the bars of the jail and had a horse pull them loose. As the bullets were flying, his grandfather got on a horse and dashed to the border. At the border, the people let him ride through. His horse was shot and died on the other side of the border. His grandfather had been wounded. He was hidden until he could get his family across. Flores' mother was also a fugitive from the Revolution. His grandfather was being hunted and had a price on his head, so he moved to San Antonio. Flores' father stayed behind until the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] came along. Flores was born in 1926. The Depression hit his family pretty hard, and his father lost his job. His father decided to move to Saltillo, Mexico to work with relatives. He visited San Antonio one more time and his car broke down. That forced him to stay there. Eleven of them lived in one house. Flores started school at age 7. He went into the service after high school.

Belisario de Jesus "Bel" Flores read that the brunt of the manpower in World War 2 came from the high school classes of 1939 through 1944. Flores was in the class of 1944. A lot of his classmates went to Europe and the Pacific. He volunteered for the Army at age 17 but was too small and was turned down. The recruiting sergeant told him to wait until he graduated from high school. It was 1945 before he was called into the tank destroyers. At the end of his basic training, his class went to Germany without him. He discovered later that most had gotten killed. He had remained behind because his platoon leader, Lieutenant Koepecki [Annotator's Note: unable to identify; unable to identify], was a real leader and role model. Flores was on duty polishing the officer's shoes when a shadow came up behind him. It was Koepecki who asked him if he liked polishing shoes and if he was going to do that for the rest of his life. He told Flores he was a good soldier and had good scholastic scores in high school. He told him if he tried, he could get a commission. That gave Flores a goal to attain. Koepecki told him to tell the First Sergeant [Annotator's Note: a senior non-commissioned rank in the Army] that he should be sent to the first available training school. The First Sergeant asked Flores if he would like to learn how to fix radios. So Flores went to radio repair school instead of going to Germany. Flores' radio class went to the Pacific after graduation, but he went to communications school. He then went to Morse Code [Annotator's Note: a method of telecommunication encoding characters in a system of dots and dashes] training. He wanted to go overseas.

Ever since Belisario de Jesus "Bel" Flores was 12 years old, he was aware of the conflict [Annotator's Note: in Europe] but did not know he would be involved. He and his brother had two paper routes and saw the headlines about unrest in China and Europe. In September 1939 Flores' teacher, Clara H. Cole [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], came in one morning, leaned against a table, motioned for silence, and told the children that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] invaded Poland [Annotator's Note: German Invasion of Poland, 1 September 1939]. She said she was afraid that before all of this was over, Flores did not know what she was talking about, all of them were going to get involved. She told them that some of them were going to die. At 13, that was the furthest thing from his mind. Her words were prophetic. At the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], one of the first jumpers behind the lines was Lieutenant Robert G. Cole [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert George Cole], Medal of Honor winner [Annotator's Note: the Medal of Honor is the highest award a United States service member can receive who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor]. He was felled by a sniper's bullet. He was his teacher's son. About eight years ago, [Annotator's Note: from the time of this interview] Flores found out two schools were named after Cole in San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas]. Flores was asked to go to the opening ceremonies but could not attend. So even though Flores did not go overseas and fight, he was surrounded by people who did. So he is a part of the Greatest Generation [Annotator's Note: nickname for the generation that fought in World War 2, after a 1998 book, "The Greatest Generation", by journalist Tom Brokaw]. Joe Darrell [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] in grammar school was a kid Flores played with. Darrell protected Flores from the bigger boys. They went their separate ways after grammar school. When Flores was in high school, he found out Darrell had been killed in the Pacific. A next-door neighbor named Adolph [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was a year older and was a fun-loving kid. One day his mother came over crying. He had dropped out of school and joined the Navy. About a year later, he came home on leave. They had a party and went to hear his war stories. He had a big scar on his face from a sniper's bullet. He had also been hit by a grenade. He was a different kid now and had grown up. He had seen war and was a veteran and had a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy]. He was not the same fun-loving kid. All the kids wanted to go fight and looked up to the kids who had dropped out of school. Flores never saw the kid again. Another friend, Pete, was the most popular kid in high school. One day they heard he joined the Marines. He came to a prom later in his uniform and on crutches with only one leg. Pete could still jitterbug [Annotator's Note: style of dancing] with one leg. Flores did not go overseas, did not contribute anything other than wearing the uniform proudly, but he was part of it.

The 2nd Infantry Division came back from fighting in Europe in the latter part of 1945. They went to Camp Swift, Texas. Belisario de Jesus "Bel" Flores was sent to join them there. He was company clerk and supply clerk. The division was reorganized and ordered to Seattle, Washington. The 10th Regimental Combat Team went to Colorado Springs [Annotator's Note: Colorado Springs, Colorado]. Flores was assigned to the First Sergeant [Annotator's Note: a senior non-commissioned rank in the Army] with them as a jeep driver. They were going to open the area up ahead of the division. He loved driving the jeep. In basic training, he was the commander's jeep driver at Camp Hood [Annotator's Note: now Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas]. He drove to Camp Carson [Annotator's Note: now Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado] and helped get it opened and ready for the troops. The 2nd Division that came in were hardened combat troops. For a while, he felt out of place. The men did not talk much about their experiences, but he knew they were different from him. He made good friends with some of them. One, Ernest Bleu [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was an Englishman who had been at Dunkirk [Annotator's Note: Battle of Dunkirk, 26 May to 4 June 1940 in Dunkirk, France]. He told Flores of some of his harrowing experiences. They became good friends and stayed in touch. On the Fourth of July 1946, they got caught in a snowstorm on Pikes Peak [Annotator's Note: near Colorado Springs, Colorado] while hiking for fun. They had gotten lost. Bleu had been wounded in Europe and had a lung injury that made him short of breath. They had run out of water and Flores went to look for water. They got separated but got together after about an hour. It was cold and they decided to take the cog train back [Annotator's Note: railroad with a toothed central rail that provides traction on steep slopes]. It had already left so they went into a café there and had hot soup. They were told there would not be another train due to the incoming snowstorm. They spent the night there. One more time, Flores was with people who had been in the war when he had not.

After his Morse Code [Annotator's Note: a method of telecommunication encoding characters in a system of dots and dashes] school, Belisario de Jesus "Bel" Flores was sent to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] at Fort Sill [Annotator's Note: in Lawton, Oklahoma]. The war ended with Japan while he was there. His grades were not good. He was weak in math. He was told he could stay but might not graduate. If he did not graduate, he would have to serve another three years. He could resign and could go home in two years. He still wanted to be a commissioned officer but decided to drop off. He was sent to the 2nd Division [Annotator's Note: 2nd Infantry Division] then at Camp Swift [Annotator's Note: in Bastrop County, Texas]. While at Camp Carson Annotator's Note: now Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado], they were told stable hands were needed. He had never been around horses or mules. Twenty or 30 of them were taken to the stables where the mules were. Flores did not want to get close to the animals. He got the job of cleaning out the stalls. They were called muleskinners [Annotator's Note: muleteer, a person who transports goods using pack animals] after that. That duty only lasted about a month. The mules had come back from the battlefields of Italy and were being retired. In March or April 1946, Flores was promoted to corporal. He was discharged on 8 August 1946.

When Belisario de Jesus "Bel" Flores got out of the Army, he still had a dream of being an officer. There was a difference in the lifestyles of people like Lieutenant Koepecki [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] and himself. He enrolled in college under the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. He wanted to an accountant in civilian life. He took a lot of math. He had been in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] in high school and did the same in college. He graduated with a degree in business administration and a commission as a second lieutenant in artillery. The war in Korea started in 1950 [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] and he went as a forward artillery observer and had ten months of combat. During Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975], he was with the Texas Air National Guard. He did 30 years of Reserve duty. Flores feels that it is very important to teach about World War 2. Freedom is not free. You cannot forget for a moment, the sacrifices of the kids who went, fought, and never came back. If that is forgotten, that is a big mistake. The country cannot afford to become soft. In Korea, when he was being shelled, he did not know those people who were trying to kill him. Right now [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview], there is Iraq [Annotator's Note: Iraq War, 2003 to 2011] and Afghanistan [Annotator's Note: War in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom, 2001 to 2014, Operation Freedom's Sentinel, 2015 to September 2021]. People who do not understand our [Annotator's Note: the American] way of life, want to take it away. The will to defend the country must be instilled in the young people. Flores has grandchildren and he does not want them to grow up to live in fear. Going back to the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865], World War 1 [Annotator's Note: global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918], and World War 2, the people were fighting for liberty. That is a commodity that we cannot afford to lose.