During World War II, Floridians of all races and civilians both played roles in national defense. With over a thousand miles of coastline, Florida was vulnerable to enemy air attacks; long-range bombers had the ability to carry large quantities of explosives far from their bases and radar detection was still in its early phases. By signing up as ground observers for the Aircraft Warning Service, many civilians helped the military by keeping their eyes on the skies.
The Aircraft Warning Service was administrated by the United States Army Corps but often, civilians were needed to keep a constant watch on every patch of the sky, as the Army could not supply the manpower for that duty. Once Army planners decided where observation posts needed to be, they relied on local county and city defense councils to appoint locals to operate said posts.
Teams of 15 to 20 observers were assigned to staff each observation post in shifts and each post was located near the center of a watch area that consisted of 36 square miles. The Aircraft Warning Service was organized in June of 1941 and by mid-September, civilians had already organized over 500 to 880 posts planned for Florida, according to the Florida Archives.
In late 1941, war loomed over Florida and the Army did not have enough time or money to build new civilian observation posts or supply them with communication equipment. As a solution, the Aircraft Warning Service used existing fire towers and other elevated structures. Volunteers were trained to communicate their observations quickly using telephone lines. When observers saw an aircraft, they were instructed to immediately contact their local telephone operator, who would connect them with a regional filter center set up to process aircraft sightings. The observers were given a specific form to use when reporting their sightings. If an enemy airplane was to enter the U.S., the Army would be able to use data from multiple reports to track its movements.
The Aircraft Warning Service is one of the many ways Floridian civilians aided the Allied war effort during WWII.