During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) established numerous airfields in Florida for antisubmarine defense in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico and for training pilots and aircrews of USAAF fighters, attack planes, and light and medium bombers.

The School of Applied Tactics and the Air Proving Grounds which tested and developed new capabilities were also located in Florida.

It is still possible to find remnants of these wartime airfields as most were converted into municipal airports, while others transitioned to the newly established United States Air Force in 1947.

A fourth became a joint civil-military commercial airport hosting a Florida Air National Guard fighter-interceptor group until 1968 when the airport was permanently closed and replaced by a newly constructed international airport and concurrently constructed Air National Guard base also hosting the same Air National Guard fighter-interceptor group which today is a full fighter wing.

In addition, a former World War II-era naval air station was transferred to USAF in the 1950s and remains under the control of the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) with a tenant ACC-gained AFRC rescue wing assigned as its sole military flying unit.