Nearly 80 years after his death in France during World War II, an Arizona soldier has been accounted for and identified, and will soon be buried in Tempe.
U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Alcario V. Flores, 37, of Coolidge, Arizona, went missing in January 1945 while defending an area near Reipertswiller, France.
According to his personnel profile with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, German forces reportedly broke up the line and cut off Pfc. Flores’s company from supply lines. Many soldiers were taken prisoner during the incident, officials say, but Flores was not recorded to be one of them.
Military officials say Pfc. Flores’s body was not able to be recovered due to the “intensity of the fighting” in the region. Numerous remains of fallen American personnel had later been recovered in the area, but none could be identified as Flores.
Despite no recovery of his body or note of being taken prisoner, his death was officially recorded as January 1946.
In 2021, officials say an anonymous metal detectorist discovered human remains while illegally collecting relics from a foxhole where Pfc. Flores’s company was assigned. The finder recorded the location and reburied the remains, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said.
The remains were recovered later that year and experts used a variety of DNA and other evidence to officially identify the remains as Pfc. Flores in March 2024.
“Pfc. Flores’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France, along with others still missing from WWII,” officials say. “A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.”
He is set to be buried in Tempe on Aug. 3, 2024.
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