Written By: Bill Syken
During World War II, Miami Beach transformed from a tourist haven to military training ground. Tens of thousands of troops passed through South Florida to prepare for combat.
“America’s winter playground, home of the press agent and the bathing beauty, has gone to war,” LIFE reported in its December 18, 1942 issue. “…instead of tourists in gay sports clothes, young men of the U.S. Army Air Forces, dressed in drab khaki, drill on the green golf courses and live in hotels. For now Miami Beach is a vast army training center.”
The military was drawn to Miami for much the same reasons that vacationers have been for decades—they liked the climate and seaside location, as well as flat terrain. Within a year of the United States joining World War II, the army’s Air Forces (what it was called before the Air Force became a separate branch) had leased “almost all of the 332 resort hotels” in Miami Beach, according to LIFE.
As one history tells it, the transformation worked well, even if the effect was sometimes jarring: “The hotels,” a reporter wrote in 1943, “make good barracks. The baby pink and eggshell furniture is stored now. Three-decker army bunks jam the pastel-tinted rooms, dance floors, night clubs.”
LIFE’s photos, taken by Myron Davis and William C. Shrout, capture the juxtaposition between Miami’s picture-postcard surroundings and the seriousness of the Army’s mission. Soldiers cram into baseball stadium stands to take a course on chemical warfare. Future mess hall cooks learn their trade in resort kitchens. Palms trees sway in the background as soldiers are pushed through the exercises meant to toughen them up for combat.
The few pictures that might be mistaken for classic beach vacation photos are the ones of shirtless soldiers rushing into the water. In those shots, there is no hint of the hell they could be headed for, once they were done in Miami.
Army recruits exercised on a Miami Beach golf course in 1942; the buildings in the background were used as classrooms.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers took swimming lessons in the pool at the Roney Plaza hotel, Miami Beach, 1942.
William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers performed calisthenitcs that were followed by an ocean swim, Miami, 1942.
William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soliders in training took an ocean swim, Miami Beach, 1942.
William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers trained at Miami Beach, 1942.
William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers took an ocean swim, Miami Beach, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers swam and played in the ocean, Miami Beach, 1942.
William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers waited to get into the mess hall in the Hotel Evans, Miami Beach, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Army recruits took aptitude tests in a movie theater, Miami, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Men from the 578th Squadron took a break from their training in the courtyard of the Breakwater Hotel, Miami, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
A Miami restaurant was converted into a mess hall, Miami, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
The lobby of the Hotel Evans was converted into an office space for soldiers, Miami, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
The stock exchange on Collins Avenue in Miami was converted into a clinic for soldiers who were having problems with their feet, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
These weren’t standard barracks, but officer candidates had to clean and prepare their rooms for daily inspection, Miami, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Army roll call was held outside one of the civilian buildings taken over for the training of Army recruits, Miami Beach, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Army recruits trained to be cooks and bakers in a makeshift classroom in what was the Drake Hotel’s cigar store and coffeeshop, Miami, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Army recruits lined up to enter a building taken over by the military, Miami Beach, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers drilled on a field in Miami Beach, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
A clothier shop was catering to Army needs, Miami, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
An Army class in chemical warfare was taught in the grandstand of the Flamingo Park Baseball Field, Miami Beach, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Soldiers trained in Miami Beach, 1942.
Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
