Military in Florida

Discover 17 military in Florida.

Spiegel Grove in 2010

Key Largo, Florida

USS Spiegel Grove Shipwreck

After a long career, a disastrous sinking, and a half-successful salvage, this Naval vessel-turned-artificial reef ended up exactly where she was supposed to—with a little help from nature.

USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg

Key West, Florida

USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg

Six miles off the coast of Key West, a former military transport ship is now one of the largest artificial reefs in the world.

Zephyrhills, Florida

Zephyrhills Museum of Military History

This facility, now a museum, once housed and trained U.S. Army Air Force pilots who flew during the Allied invasion of Normandy.

The African Cemetery at Higgs Beach, Key West.

Key West, Florida

African Cemetery at Higgs Beach

Near the ruins of a Civil War coastal fortress lies the only known African refugee cemetery in the United States.

An exposed boiler of the San Pablo.

Pensacola, Florida

San Pablo Shipwreck

Though nicknamed the “Russian Freighter,” this ship was actually sunk off the coast of Pensacola by the U.S. government in a top-secret operation.

The submarine watchtower in Ormond Beach.

Ormond Beach, Florida

Ormond Beach Watchtower

A replica of one of the more than 15,000 civilian lookout towers that lined the U.S. coast during World War II.

The Dummett Plantation ruins.

Ormond Beach, Florida

Dummett Sugar Mill Ruins

The ruins of a once-thriving sugarcane plantation that was burned in the Second Seminole War.

Oriskany two years after sinking.

Pensacola, Florida

USS Oriskany

The 44,000-ton aircraft carrier was purposely sunk to create an artificial reef teeming with life.

Pensacola, Florida

Fort Barrancas

This now-deactivated naval base defended the Florida coast for centuries.

Permanently Closed

Topside

Jacksonville, Florida

The USS Orleck

After serving in Vietnam, Korea, and even a stint in the Turkish navy, the unique ship is now open as a museum.

Wall South at Veterans Memorial Park.

Pensacola, Florida

'Wall South' Vietnam Memorial

Florida’s half-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Wall.

A collection of rocks, fossils and other items from around the US and foreign countries.

Kissimmee, Florida

Monument of States

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, rocks and fossils from every U.S. state were collected into a pyramid of national unity.

Rota the lion at the Lightner Museum.

St. Augustine, Florida

Sir Winston Churchill's Lion 'Rota'

A lion given to the prime minister somehow got stuffed and sent to Florida.

The Ferdinand Magellan Presidential Railcar at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum, Miami, 2007.

Ferdinand Magellan Presidential Railcar

With nickel-steel armor and three-inch thick bullet resistant windows, FDR's train was a rolling fortress.

Fort Pickens

Pensacola Beach, Florida

Fort Pickens

One of the only Florida forts to remain in the hands of the Union all through the Civil War still stands as a historic stronghold.

Outside view.

Sarasota, Florida

The Last Defense of Fort Juan Ortiz

A lone gunner's station is all that remains of a replica Spanish Fort in Florida.