U.S. Coast Guard and maritime training ships at anchor, Bayboro Harbor, St. Petersburg, Fla. 1940. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.
A Tourist Town and a Training Ground: St. Pete during World War II By Tina Stewart Brakebill In December of 1941, the United States declared war on the Axis Powers and officially entered a war already raging overseas. Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, policymakers in the United States had anticipated our escalating involvement with a series of actions that brought the overseas war effort closer to Tampa Bay and changed St. Pete’s future path.
The Best Laid Plans In the year leading up to Pearl Harbor, locals followed the war news, registered for the draft as required by the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (the first peacetime conscription act in U.S. history), and contributed to the budding defense industry. The 1941 Lend-Lease Act escalated manufacturing meant to supply material aid to the war effort in Europe. Campaigns reminded people that the old family coffee pot could become part of an airplane and urged “housewives … to turn any old pots, pans, and other scrap … over to the government for defense purposes.” Throughout 1941, however, locals eyes also were on area political issues, including how St. Petersburg chose its mayor and a proposed liquor ordinance that mandated daily closing times and complete closures on all
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Sundays and election days. To many, war seemed far away. Organizers couldn’t even drum up a robust show of support for a volunteer Home Defense Unit. Meanwhile the Chamber of Commerce budgeted $100,000 to promote tourism “in the warmth of the subtropics” and predicted a record season. The December declaration of war after the surprise of Pearl Harbor changed everything. All eyes turned to the war. Local tourism was initially crippled and the already existing military presence escalated.
The Military Moves In Two years before the United States officially entered the war, the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station at Bayboro Harbor began conducting antisubmarine air patrols over the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the 1939 Presidential Proclamation prohibiting submarines from belligerent nations from entering American ports. That same year the Coast Guard also reopened its Bayboro Harbor naval base as a training station for merchant seamen. By 1940, two training ships were bringing in a steady stream of training recruits as dredging and filling expanded the base and reshaped the shoreline. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, even bigger changes unfolded. Local officials lobbied hard to convince the government that St. Pete was a perfect place to house and train newly drafted and volunteering soldiers. In June 1942, that effort was rewarded as soldiers began to arrive for Army Air Corps technical service training. Over the next year, more than 100,000 trainees filled almost every major hotel and camped out at the Piper Fuller Airport and Jungle Club Golf Course. The Army Air Corps left in July of 1943, but those rooms remained filled as the maritime training facility at Bayboro Harbor expanded and the Army Transport Corps Marine Officers Cadet School arrived. A significant number of pilots also trained at Pinellas Army Air base (north of St. Pete) and at MacDill Field (in Tampa), and those trainees also regularly made their way to the Sunshine City. In addition, many soldiers brought their families to live with them during training. Hotels, streets, bars, beaches, and restaurants were overflowing in a “sea of khaki,” but St. Pete also experienced a boom in house and apartment rentals and purchases as many military families decided to remain in town after soldiers shipped overseas.
