Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. By December 11, the United States was officially at war with both Japan and Germany. Soon millions of volunteers and draftees entered the military.
In July 1942, the Army Air Forces opened a Basic Training Center in St. Petersburg. According to Wikipedia, the purpose of the facility was to arrange "the deployment of airmen to overseas groups and squadrons in combat theaters around the world." Other Army Air Forces basic training centers were located in Greensboro, Miami Beach and Atlantic City.
To house thousands of trainees, seventy area hotels were leased by the War Department. In St. Petersburg and Its People, Walter Fuller writes that a total of 119,057 military personnel passed through the St. Petersburg Basic Training Center, about 25% were "foreign or of foreign extraction."
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The Belleview-Biltmore Hotel in Clearwater was the largest of 70 area hotels leased by the War Department.
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"The Jungle hotel property was one of the first group here taken over by the Army. Located at Park street and Fifth avenue north, overlooking Boca Ciega bay, it had in past years catered to an exclusive clientele and had been known as one of the most beautiful on the west coast. Since the arrival of the Army it has housed the Military Police unit of the post, and M.P. instruction has been conducted there. A part also has been used for guardhouse purposes."By February 1943, at the peak of the Army's occupation, the city's hotels were full. There was an urgent need for additional training facilities, so a decision was made to erect a tent city on the Jungle golf course to handle 10,000 recruits. This location had several advantages ‒ military personnel were already living at the Jungle Hotel, the golf course had recently closed and the expansive property was available, there was trolley service to downtown, and Bay Pines VA Hospital was only four miles away. The passenger train service to St. Petersburg passed through the Jungle ‒ incoming recruits could disembark a few blocks from the camp. In addition, a serviceable airport with grass runways ‒ Piper-Fuller Airfield ‒ was located adjacent to the golf course.
‒ St. Petersburg Times Feb 1, 1943.
"Bulldozers swept in, leveled the golf course made famous by Babe Ruth."In early February, hundreds of tents went up on the former golf course and Piper-Fuller Airfield, each tent equipped for five or six men. A large portion of the Azalea neighborhood of today was covered in canvas. By my estimation as many as 1800 tents ‒ or 100 tents per hole on the golf course ‒ were pitched to accommodate 10,000 trainees.
‒ Stan Witwer, St. Petersburg Times.
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| Row of tents on the Jungle golf course. St. Petersburg Times Feb 24, 1943. |
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| Alton Evening Telegraph Fri Aug 13 1943 |
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| Tent City had a boxing team St. Petersburg Times Feb 27, 1943 |
It's been reported that on four occasions, the tent city residents were forced to pack up their gear and march to the hotel to seek shelter from forecast storms.
In his book St. Petersburg and Its People, Walter Fuller describes the training that took place during this period as four weeks of basic training (with Sundays off) using "equipment such as would be utilized in jungle warfare - nearly daily use of the rifle range, etc."
Just two months after the tent city was erected, the camp was dismantled. The basic training phase of the war effort was winding down and the Army didn't consider the tent city a satisfactory long term site. A few months later the Army Air Forces closed the entire St. Petersburg operation. Most of its remaining personnel and assets were transferred to Lincoln Army Airfield, Nebraska.
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| A recreation room was opened in the Jungle Prado building for the Army trainees. St. Petersburg Times - April 11, 1943 |
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My Uncle Gordy was one of the many military personnel to pass through St. Petersburg before assignment as flight engineer with a B-17 bomber group that went on to complete 35 missions over Germany. In his memoirs, he writes that he was in St. Petersburg for a few weeks of basic training and testing in November 1942, stayed in a hotel and was even able to play a round of golf.
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