Several career officers from Alabama played exceptionally noteworthy roles in the war. Howard Gilmore, born in Selma and commander of the USS Growler, became the first submarine commander in World War II to receive (posthumously) the Medal of Honor. Born in Bessemer, Navy commander David McCampbell, of the renowned Air Group Fifteen on the carrier USS Enterprise, downed 34 Japanese planes, more than any other Navy pilot. “Gordo” Davis, so nicknamed after his hometown in Pickens County, led his troops into Japanese fire on Guadalcanal and earned a Medal of Honor. Twelve of the 469 recipients of the Medal of Honor in World War II were born in Alabama or entered service there. More than 6,000 Alabamians lost their lives in military service: 4,600 in combat and 1,600 in non-combat situations. Many women volunteered for one of the military auxiliaries, such as the Women’s Army Corps or the Army Nurse Corps. By the summer of 1941, nearly 350,000 Alabama men between the ages of 21 and 35 had registered with draft boards.Īpproximately 300,000 Alabama men donned service uniforms during the war, and tens of thousands of servicemen trained in the state. Toward the end of 1940, nearly 4,000 Alabama National Guardsmen joined men from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida in the Thirty-first Infantry (Dixie) Division at Camp Blanding, Florida. After Germany’s rapid conquest of Poland in September 1939, and France, Belgium, and the Netherlands the next summer, Congress appropriated $5 billion for defense, passed legislation to create a military draft, and authorized Roosevelt to call up the Army Reserves and federalize the National Guard. Franklin Delano Roosevelt to urge Congress and the American public to support sharply increased defense spending, expanding the armed forces, and establishing military conscription.
In the late 1930s, the aggressive actions taken by the future Axis powers-Germany, Italy, and Japan-led Pres. Boom times followed, with sometimes dubious consequences for many Alabama communities, and the effects of these changes continue to evolve and shape the state and its inhabitants.
The state had already begun its recovery after the Great Depression, but the war brought major industrial expansion, dramatic population shifts, and new opportunities in the workforce for African Americans and women. World War II and its aftermath changed the face of American culture, and this was equally true in Alabama.
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