It was the greatest war in all history and Florida's National
Guardsmen served, trained, fought and some died, in every theater
and in every great battle, on land and in the air, of that
titanic global struggle. Most served in, or with, the infantry,
many in the Army Air Corps, and others in the artillery,
engineers, quartermasters and as specialists in all the various
technical professions associated with modern, industrial and
scientific warfare. Most came home at wars end; some did not.

One might have thought all of Florida's Guardsmen would have
served in the same unit; the 31st Division of which they were an
organic part prior to general mobilization. Actually, most did
not. It was partly calculation and intent on the part of the
Regular Army but mostly it was simply the incredible demands
created by the nature and size of the war itself. Some
artillery, some support troops and a handful of Florida infantry
would eventually reach the South Pacific and serve with the 31st
Infantry Division in New Guinea and the Philippines. All of the
Coast Artillery and most of the infantry would fight their war in
other units and in other places.


Following general mobilization in November 1940, (January 1941
for the 265th), Florida's soldiers took up residence at newly
created Camp Blanding, Florida. There they were joined by other
elements of the 31st Division and their ranks fleshed out with
draftees, most from Florida and the other southern states
providing units of the 31st. Almost immediately, individuals
were separated from their Guard units; some to attend special
technical schools, a few to OCS and even more succumed to the
romantic attractions of a war in the air; the Army Air Corps.


Following the maneuvers of 1941 and the cataclysm of Pearl
Harbor, Florida men began disappearing from the Division in large
numbers. More volunteered for the Air Corps, numerous
individuals went off to OCS and a very large number responded to
the appeal for men to fill the ranks of the new airborne
divisions. By this time, the 124th Infantry was no longer part
of the 31st Division. They were school troops at the infantry
school at Fort Benning, training the thousands and thousands of
new junior officers of the vastly expanded national army how to
do their job.


By the fall of 1943, approximately one half of the Florida
Guardsmen in the 124th were gone and, at Camp Jackson, South
Carolina, the remainder were transferred to other units and the
regiment itself was officially disbanded. From Camp Jackson,
large drafts of men from the 124th were sent to the 4th and 30th
Divisions, destined for a war.that would begin in the hedgerows