FORT LAUDERDALE — Wearing a black sash that read “100th Birthday King” in gold letters, Thomas Dowdy Jr. waved to members of Fort Lauderdale Police and Fire Rescue as they drove down his street, blaring their sirens, honking their horns and flashing their red, white and blue sirens in celebration of the World War II veteran turning 100 years old.
“All for me?” Dowdy said with tears in his eyes in response to the parade and crowds that quickly formed outside his home.
Carrying party favors, cheering and waving, Dowdy’s family, friends, nurses and neighbors joined in the celebration. Standing directly behind Dowdy was his daughter, Loretta Shorter.
“Two years ago he said I want to make it to 100,” Shorter said. “So that’s what we have been striving for — to make it to 100. And he made it.”
After the parade, Dowdy will celebrate with the feast his family prepared for him, doing his favorite thing — eating, according to his daughter.
Known in the neighborhood as “Mr. TJ,” Dowdy has lived in the Lincoln Park subdivision of the Durrs neighborhood since 1951, moving in after the war ended. He took a job at a local Winn-Dixie, where he worked for 42 years before retiring.
“We’re blessed to have him here, to be able to share the history, and share how he has contributed to our country, our liberty and our safety,” Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman said.
Dowdy was drafted into the U.S. Army at 18, and after serving in World War II, returned to the Fort Lauderdale community where he has lived ever since.
World War II marked a shift in Broward County’s history, and the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood where Dowdy settled was built to house veterans returning from the war as a part of the economic boom that followed in Broward County.
After the war came the birth of the yachting industry under the direction of Broward Marine, which very quickly became one of the largest employers in Broward County, according to Patricia Zeiler from the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society.
“They employed Navy veterans who had experience with ships,” Zeiler said. “That was what drove this huge boom in the economy, post World War II in Broward County, particularly in Fort Lauderdale.”
Before World War II, Florida was still the least-populated southern state in 1940. World War II changed that.
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. On Dec. 8, America entered the war. Many came to Florida to help prepare soldiers. Among the soldiers from all over the U.S. who fought in this war were over 250,000 from Florida.
Because of Florida’s warm weather and available land, it was ideal for the building of military bases and training soldiers. Florida had 172 military installations, ranging from extremely large to relatively small camps.
In Broward County, Naval Air Station Ft. Lauderdale was commissioned in October 1942 as a training ground. Over 700 pilots were intentionally or accidentally dunked in the Atlantic to provide experience to pilots and crews.
Auxiliary fields to this site were located at North Pompano and West Prospect. Those fields today are Pompano Beach Airport and Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, respectively.
Before becoming the 41st U.S. President, George H. W. Bush received training on the Avenger TBF/TBM torpedo bomber at NAS Ft. Lauderdale from June 16 to Aug. 16, 1943.
Declared surplus by the Navy in 1948, Broward County leased this site for operation of what became the present day Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. On May 20, 1998, Link Trainer Building #8, a World War II facility, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.