SAIPAN resident Lt. Col. Albert S. Flores Jr. of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve was presented with a Bronze Star Medal in recognition of his achievements while deployed to Afghanistan last year as an operations officer, military advisor, and special operations liaison officer for Task Force Southwest.
On Tuesday, Flores was presented the award at the Court of Honor and Flag Circle of American Memorial Park by U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Mark Hashimoto from the Marine Pacific Command in Hawaii.
The Bronze Star Medal citation reads in part: “Lt. Colonel Flores served as a critical link between Task Force Southwest and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Special Operations Component Command Afghanistan elements operating in Helmand and facilitated 10 kinetic strikes, each of which had potential strategic implications.”
The citation also reads, “As the 215th Corps Brigade Advisor, he effectively advised his partners, improved their operational capacity and gathered information vital to the broader train, advise, and assist mission.”
General Hashimoto gave high praise to Lt. Col. Flores not only for his service in the armed forces but also for his commitment to his family as well as to his civilian career.
“He is balancing his family, his civilian career, and his Marine Corps career, and he has done so magnificently,” he said.
The general added, “For this award, what he did was he had to take time away from his family to deploy to the combat zone in Afghanistan, do a whole bunch of things, figuring things out for himself. I had some business to conduct here in the Commonwealth and had this opportunity [to present him with this award] and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
Lt. Col. Flores, for his part, said, “It was important for me to do this here in Saipan so that my family could be here, so that my children could see why I’m gone, what I’ve been doing, so that my wife could be here as well.”
He added, “This deployment was the hardest of my career. It was a long one and it was unexpected.”
While in the middle of a jury trial in Virginia in October 2019, Lt. Col. Flores received a call to deploy to Afghanistan within just two weeks.
“I had to leave home for fifteen months. [My wife] Doemiko and I were not expecting that. But we did it together, the two of us, her back home and with me away,” he said.
Lt. Col. Flores was deployed during the global Covid-19 pandemic. His wife Doemiko was not only left to fend for their children during his deployment, but also worked full time.
The deployment itself was very challenging, he added, but it was a unique opportunity for him as well.
“I got to lead the inaugural reconnaissance company to go to Afghanistan, and I got to be with the last Marine Corps unit to in Afghanistan, so that was a pretty unique thing for me. The people that I got to work with there — the Marines that I served with, the sailors that I served with, my Afghan partners — they were great people. It was a challenging mission, but we did it together. This was definitely not an individual award, in my opinion. This [award] was something that I earned with the help of the people to my right and to my left, and with the people back home,” he said.
Born and raised in San Jose, California, Lt. Col. Flores was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer through the Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or NROTC, program while attending Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.
He served on active duty from 2003 to 2012 as an intelligence officer and expeditionary reconnaissance officer.
In 2005, Lt. Col. Flores was deployed to Iraq for over a year, serving as an intelligence officer for Regimental Combat Team-2.
Upon his return from Iraq, he joined the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion where he served as a platoon commander, force reconnaissance company executive officer, and company commander.
He was then deployed to Iraq from 2007 to 2008 as a reconnaissance platoon commander, and to Afghanistan in 2009 as a company commander.
Upon returning from Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Flores joined the Marine Special Operations Command, where he served as one of the inaugural company commanders, and the operations officer for a newly formed Marine Special Operations Intelligence Battalion.
He has served in the Marine Corps Reserves since 2012, assigned to the II Marine Expeditionary Force as an intelligence targeting officer, and to the Marine Special Operations Command as an intelligence officer.
In 2017, he joined the 4th Reconnaissance Battalion where he served as a company commander.
Two years later, Lt. Col. Flores was mobilized to active duty for deployment to Afghanistan with Task Force Southwest as a special operations liaison officer and military advisor to Afghan Security Forces.
After completing a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan, and a 15-month mobilization period away from home, he returned to reserve duty and joined the Marine Corps Forces Pacific Command in Hawaii to serve as an intelligence officer.
Lt. Col. Flores’ personal decorations include a Bronze Star with “V,” three Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one with “V,” and two combat action ribbons.
He is also the recipient of the Col. Ralph Puckett Officer Honor Graduate Award of the US Army Ranger School.
Lt. Col. Flores and his family moved to Saipan earlier this year after his return from Afghanistan.
Today, he serves as an assistant United States attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
He and his wife of 16 years, Doemiko, live on Saipan, with their three children, Miriam, Thomas, and Scarlett.
Lt. Col. Albert S. Flores Jr. with his wife Doemiko
Lt. Col. Albert S. Flores Jr., his wife Doemiko, and their three children, Miriam, Thomas, and Scarlett.
Gen. Mark Hashimoto of the Marine Pacific Command in Hawaii presents the Bronze Star Medal to Lt. Col. Albert S. Flores Jr.
Family, friends, and colleagues join Lt. Col. Albert S. Flores Jr. for a commemorative group photo.
