Fresno Elk’s Lodge honors veterans with St. Patrick’s Day luncheon

As Bill Flores sat at the Elks Lodge in northeast Fresno on Sunday for its third annual Veteran’s St. Patrick’s Day Recognition and Luncheon event, he knew he had come a long way from when he returned from serving in the U.S. Army in 1969.

“I’m a Vietnam vet,” said Flores, 66, of Visalia. “We didn’t get a lot of honor.”

Flores, humbled by the recognition Sunday, said Vietnam era veterans especially were not treated with the same praise as veterans who served at any other time in history. “It was quite ugly when I came home, so this is pretty neat for me.”

The Fresno Elks Lodge No. 439 recognized 54 veterans from all branches of service on Sunday afternoon with a traditional three-course meal and live music. They received a $15 Target gift card and had their portrait taken. A full color guard performed and guest speakers recognized all military veterans.

Flores, who is part of the Elks Lodge in Visalia, said he was invited to the luncheon by his cousin, Alfred M. Flores, 77, a Fresno Elks Lodge member and Air Force veteran.

In fact, the whole Flores family is filled with members who have served in different branches of the military. “I don’t think there is any member of the male side of my father’s family who has not served in the military,” Bill Flores said. His family is from Fresno, where he was born and raised.

Flores said his father was a door gunner in WWII and was a prisoner of war after he was shot down over Nazi Germany. His father’s younger brother was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII and is buried in France. Bill Flores himself was an aircraft crew chief and door gunner, who was shot down three times. “It wasn’t fun,” he said, “but we survived.”

Flores, now an insurance salesman, said he joined the Elks Lodge because he wanted to make a difference in the community.

“In Tulare we bought every kid in this school a pair of shoes,” he said. “We sent them to the store and paid the whole bill.”

The 13 lodges in the district also give to charities and are most interested in honoring veterans and taking care of children, Flores said. “To the Elks, it’s important to honor the vets. We’re all veterans, some of us during wartime, some of us not. It doesn’t really matter, we served our country.”

He saw a shift in the way the public viewed Vietnam-era veterans sometime in the 90s. He remembers shaking hands with the vets who came back from the first Iraq war, and he says Vietnam vets have a motto that they don’t want any other generation treated as they were.

Flores describes his return in 1969 as starkly different than what would happen today. “The atmosphere was different, the country was different, the people were different,” he said.

He recalled walking in San Francisco upon his return with a friend while both were dressed in Army uniforms. “We got yelled at so many times just by people driving in their cars. Just yelling out the window, (calling) names, just spitting at us,” he said. “It got so bad, we went to a thrift store and bought civilian clothes. We got out of our Army uniforms and put on civilian clothes so we wouldn’t get harassed.”

Bill Flores is now married, and has two adult daughters and three grandchildren. He said his family is proud of his accomplishments and his grandchildren continue the family’s patriotism by enrolling in the Cub Scouts and the Girl Scouts.

As veterans walked into the Elk’s Lodge on Sunday, they had their portrait taken by John Crawford, an Air Force veteran who served in Germany during the Korean War.

Crawford said honoring veterans like at Sunday’s event is important, not only because the nation would not have the freedoms it has now without veterans, but because of what happened during the Vietnam era.

“It was a black time for the military,” he said. Crawford said events like Sunday’s “builds the morale and tells the guys that we care. We, as a nation, care.”

This story was originally published March 19, 2017 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Fresno Elk’s Lodge honors veterans with St. Patrick’s Day luncheon."