With the attack on Pearl Harbor and the coming of World War II, life in America and South Carolina would never be the same. Military funding and facilities swarmed into the area, and populations and long-depressed living standards rose as a result. Here are some key developments:

The Charleston Navy Yard became the city’s largest employer, and the population soared as workers crowded in.<

Fort Jackson near Columbia became one of the U.S. Army’s largest infantry training grounds, and Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s famed Tokyo Raiders trained for their daring missions over Lake Murray.

Camp Croft near Spartanburg opened, training a quarter-million infantrymen during the war.

Down in Walterboro, the Tuskegee Airmen, a highly-decorated group of African American fighter pilots, trained for their missions escorting bombing raids over Germany. Walterboro also hosted a large German POW camp.

The Marine Corp Recruiting Depot Parris Island expanded massively, training nearly a quarter-million recruits from 1941–1945.

The entire 1944 graduating class of The Citadel in Charleston was inducted into the armed forces—possibly the only time an entire class was drafted at once.