William Flores


William Ray Flores was a seaman apprentice in the United States Coast Guard. SA Flores was posthumously honored for heroic behavior during a 1980 ship collision. In November 2011, the Coast Guard selected Flores as the namesake of the third of its Sentinel class cutters.

Life

Flores was born and raised in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and, with his parents' permission, left Western Hills High School in Benbrook, Texas early in order to enlist in his country's service.
On January 28, 1980, 18-year-old Flores stayed aboard the USCGC Blackthorn as it was sinking following a collision with a tanker, Capricorn, and helped save twenty-three of his crewmates, at the cost of his own life.
Flores threw life jackets to seamen struggling in the water without life jackets.
He strapped the life jacket locker open, so remaining life jackets would be released as the vessel sank.
He then tried to aid wounded seamen who were still aboard.
The collision has been described as the worst peacetime disaster in the Coast Guard's history.

Honors

In 2000, twenty years after the collision, Flores was formally honored for his bravery. Flores was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Medal. The Coast Guard Medal is the highest non-combat bravery award of the United States Coast Guard.
In November 2011, the Coast Guard named its third Sentinel class cutter USCGC William Flores. All the vessels in this class are to be named after heroic members of the Coast Guard.
"Your Son is Gone," was the last of five Coast Guard marching cadences nominated for Coast Guard Boot Camp's Top Cadence of 2012. The cadence chronicles the last surviving minutes of Seaman Apprentice William R. Flores aboard Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn January 28, 1980.
St. Petersburg, and the Coast Guard, each held commemorative events to mark the 40th anniversary of Flores heroic act, in late January 2020. A recently completed lifesize concrete statue of Flores was unveiled at the ceremony. It will be placed offshore, near the site of the sinking.