liked what he heard and invited Santos to join his group "El Cuarteto Flores" which also included Myrta Silva, and would in the future also include Pedro Ortiz Dávila (also known by his stage name "Davilita"). Santos recorded many songs with the Cuarteto Flores and started to gain fame. Among the songs he recorded were: "Perdon"; "Amor"; "El Ultimo Adios" "Si Yo Fuera Millonario" by singer/composer Miguel Poventud and Borracho no Vale'. Participation in World War II In the early 1940s, many young Puerto Rican men were drafted for World War II, among them Santos. Santos recorded "Despedida" (My Good-bye), a farewell song written by Flores from the viewpoint of an Army recruit who had to leave behind his girlfriend and his ailing mother, which became a hit. Santos recalled in an interview once that he had to hold back tears while recording the song, since his draft papers had just arrived and he would soon have to live a situation similar to what the song's lyrics described, but that a friend started mocking him at the control booth, to which he decided to curse him on the spot, trading the word mama'o (an extremely vulgar term in Puerto Rican Spanish) for mamá (mother). This incident produced two mannerisms that Santos eventually adopted in his singing style: chopped delivery (almost syllable by syllable, as suggested by Flores) and stretched last vowel in the last verse of each stanza, in almost every song he recorded afterwards. He was sent to Maui Island, after completing his basic military training in Kentucky. In Maui, he was assigned to a US Army infantry unit which was used to replenish casualties in the Pacific theatre. Santos would joke that he escaped the "replenishment levies" because of his guitar playing skills. Nevertheless, he was sent to Okinawa towards the end of the war. While in the military Santos teamed up with Juanito Jiménez as a part of a duo dubbed Los Cumbancheros. After the war concluded Santos returned to New York, where he received a tribute upon his arrival. There he recorded "Linda", written specially for him by Flores for one of Santos' old girlfriends. International performances Santos became active in the Puerto Rican Independence Movement and identified himself with the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and its president Pedro Albizu Campos after he was discharged from the military because of the prejudice which he experienced within