Viva Florida 500:#15 Florida A Major Military Base
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This cache was placed to celebrate the 500th anniversary of exploration & history in Florida on June 8th & 9th. Viva Florida 500 at Paynes Prairie Preserve: Event GC48857 Thank You to Prairie Cachers & stejenwell for hosting this event. Special Thanks to amtg, Call me dainty, CWagoner, CYAO, doggymama, Joshtrecker81, mintmoonpi, Obilon, Tango of TCE, & wobegon crew
1939-1945: Florida - A Major Military Base State Florida was a major military base state during the Second World War, particularly during the years 1942-to 1945. “2.1-million service men and women poured into Florida for military training. The Army Air Forces alone occupied 70,000 hotel rooms in Miami Beach, where five acres of servicemen did calisthenics in gas masks, and an alert movie fan could catch sight of Clark Cable, William Holden, or Robert Preston in close order drill. The Army’s Camp Blanding, near Starke, with 80,000 recruits and draftees, became Florida’s fourth largest city, behind Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa. With Florida’s good year-round flying weather and level terrain, the Army and Navy operated forty airfields from Pensacola to the Keys, including Eglin Air Power Ground in the Panhandle where Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle trained his B-25 bomber pilots for their surprise carrier-launched raid on Japan in 1942. Before and during the U.S. entry into the war, British Royal Air Force cadets took flight training at Dorr and Carlstrom fields in Arcadia. In June 1942 four German saboteurs came ashore from a submarine, or U-boat, near Ponte Vedra. Their bumbling operation was discovered and tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. All four men were executed by the U.S. Army two months after their landing. Far more serious were twenty-four U-boat torpedo attacks in Florida coastal waters against U.S. and Allied freighter and tankers. The sinking of those ships, which carried raw materials, oil, and aviation gasoline, was seriously damaging to the U.S. war effort. The torpedo explosions, the columns of smoke, and debris swept onto shore brought the war visibly to the doorsteps of stunned beach-cottage residents.” *The above is quoted from Dr. Michael Gannon’s “History of Florida in 40 Minutes”, Chapter 9. (This is a great book to have for your library.) It’s also important to note that when the war ended, Florida experienced a population boom of military veterans and their families who enjoyed the weather and what they saw while based in Florida. From that point, Florida’s population spiraled upward and it is now one of the most populated states in the country today.
Additional Hints
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