Naples in World War Two: The Airdrome on the Gulf
Near Naples, Florida
The Second World War reached even the remote Gulf coast of southwest Florida. As the United States military expanded rapidly after December of nineteen forty-one, the warm climate, clear skies, and open terrain of south Florida made the region attractive for flight training and coastal patrol. In nineteen forty-two the Army Air Forces established Naples Army Air Field, where flight cadets received basic training, on ground that would later become the Naples Municipal Airport.
The airdrome brought military aircraft, personnel, and the economic activity that accompanied a wartime installation to a community that had previously been known mainly as a quiet winter retreat. The Gulf of Mexico off Naples was also a zone of active concern during the early years of the war. German submarines operated in Gulf waters and sank merchant ships within range of the Florida coast.
Coastal watch was maintained along the Gulf beaches. The military presence, though it did not transform Naples as dramatically as it reshaped some larger Florida cities, accelerated the development of what became the local airport and contributed to the supporting infrastructure that proved useful in the postwar decades. Some service members who trained in south Florida's sunshine are said to have returned after the war as civilians, and the population growth that followed helped convert Naples from an intimate seasonal retreat into a city with permanent aspirations.
