Threat of war speeds up wedding

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 4:26 a.m.

Army Pfc. Victor Flores of Las Vegas sometimes drives up Franklin Mountain from Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and looks across the river his father crossed on an inner tube when he came to this country.

"It's funny," the 21-year-old soldier said. "At night, El Paso and Juarez (Mexico, where his father came from) look the same -- a bunch of lights, one big city. But they're worlds apart."

Now, Flores is ready to help defend the United States, the world in which his dad made it possible for him to live.

And if he leaves for duty in America's new war, he will be a newlywed.

After the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, the supply specialist listened as his company's first sergeant told the troops to be ready. Flores said he had plans to get married in October.

"Better do it now," the first sergeant said.

Flores and Rebeca Saucedo, 19, met at Valley High School. They were married Friday.

His fiancee was scared in the days following Sept. 11.

"I thought, are we going to enter World War III? Now I'm more calm and pray that the president handles this without many more innocent people dying," she said.

Flores was 5 when his father arrived in Texas. Six months later, he and his mother crossed the border as tourists.

All three took advantage of President Reagan's 1986 immigrant amnesty program.

Flores was a Community College of Southern Nevada student when he decided to enlist.

"Family friends told me that they learned something from seeing places that aren't as comfortable as we are. It also gets me a scholarship," he said.

As an immigrant child, he endured his share of discrimination. But he also remembers teachers and his boss at a landscaping company telling him to study and work hard.

"These are the people who are what the United States is all about, not the ones who made fun of me. A true American doesn't see skin color," Flores said.

Now he sees the U.S. as his own country, though he is proud of his Mexican background.

"This is the country where my parents lived out their dreams -- buy a house, find work, and send us all to school.

"In the Army, I'm next to a black guy, a white guy, whatever. And if we don't come together, we don't get results. This has taught me something about America -- the idea that we can all achieve something, regardless of who we are."