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OPINION: Aurora World War II veteran turns 105 years old

The Beacon-News - 2/18/2023

Feb. 18—At age 105, Henry Flora may well be the oldest World War II veteran in the Fox Valley.

With their numbers rapidly dwindling, it's more important than ever we pay tribute to those members of the "Greatest Generation" who are still with us. So I was surprised when, after hearing about Flora quietly celebrating this remarkable birthday on Thursday, I could find little about him in our library files except for a sweet "Christmas memory" published in 2006 from his wife Lois.

In that Beacon-News annual holiday feature, she wrote about how "Hank" enlisted in the Army because of the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. Two years later on Pearl Harbor Day, he sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge on his way to the South Pacific, where (I learned later) he served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur and played a critical role in communications in the South Pacific.

On Pearl Harbor Day in 1945, Lois Flora wrote, her husband sailed back under that bridge so he would be reunited on Christmas Day with her and their 18-month-old son he had never seen.

Those memories are indeed precious, as is the story daughter Hollie Flora-Holmquist of Batavia told me about how, when the couple found out the young soldier was to be shipped out, they put their wedding plans aside and hopped on a train to Joplin, Missouri, close to where he was stationed, to be married by a judge.

According to the Australia at War Research website, Flora became commanding officer of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Transmitting Station at Hemmant military camp in Brisbane, where he operated a powerful twin channel transmitter.

As commanding officer, 23-year-old Flora was in charge of the system that "transmitted the hottest communication circuit in the South Pacific," he said in an interview with this group a few years ago.

The website also noted that, in September of 1944, Flora was transferred to Seabourn Communications, where he was in charge of two specially-outfitted transmitting ships that, in essence, were "floating versions of Hemmant" and critical to communication from MacArthur's headquarters to San Francisco.

Flora, a 1941 Penn State grad — he "never misses a game," according to his daughter — arrived home from the Pacific and was reunited with his family. His technical expertise then took him to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., where he worked during the Korean War.

Flora then enjoyed a successful career in technology — first with AT&T, then with IBM, while raising four children in New York that also included her siblings Bob, Heather and Steve, said Flora-Holmquist. After retiring to Florida, Henry and Lois Flora bought a home in Aurora in 2003 to be closer to two of their children, where the couple lived together until Lois' death in 2016.

Their 72-year marriage, which included 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, was "truly a love story," said Flora-Holmquist.

Her father, who remained tech-savvy and was a gardening, bird and weather aficionado, was determined to stay in his home, and it wasn't until this past year, as his health deteriorated, that round-the-clock care became necessary, she noted.

Since the pandemic lockdown, Flora's birthdays have included colorful yard signs — this year's display was donated by "Card My Yard" — to let friends and neighbors know he'd reached another remarkable milestone.

The family celebrated with a big party when Henry turned 100, said Flora-Holmquist, and he even took a trip to San Francisco to see his Army buddy Murray Hannah, who was also his age but died later that year.

On Thursday evening, the man born during the Spanish flu pandemic celebrated this 105th birthday with a small family gathering in his home. The WWII vet is not up for interviews anymore, unfortunately, but I would like to think he feels the gratitude of a community for his service to our country, as well as for the long and productive life he has led in the eight decades that followed.

"Every day if you ask him how he is doing, no matter what is going on," said Henry Flora's daughter, "he will tell you 'I am blessed.'"

dcrosby@tribpub.com

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