The few pictures that might be mistaken for classic beach vacation photos are the ones of shirtless soldiers rushing into the water. Palms trees sway in the background as soldiers are pushed through the exercises meant to toughen them up for combat. Future mess hall cooks learn their trade in resort kitchens. Soldiers cram into baseball stadium stands to take a course on chemical warfare. ![]() Shrout, capture the juxtaposition between Miami’s picture-postcard surroundings and the seriousness of the Army’s mission. LIFE’s photos, taken by Myron Davis and William C. Three-decker army bunks jam the pastel-tinted rooms, dance floors, night clubs.” The baby pink and eggshell furniture is stored now. 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.Īs 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 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. For now Miami Beach is a vast army training center.” Army Air Forces, dressed in drab khaki, drill on the green golf courses and live in hotels. “…instead of tourists in gay sports clothes, young men of the U.S. “America’s winter playground, home of the press agent and the bathing beauty, has gone to war,” LIFE reported in its Decemissue. Tens of thousands of troops passed through South Florida to prepare for combat. During World War II, Miami Beach transformed from a tourist haven to military training ground.
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