When a second bugler arrived to the 588th, the columnist wrote:

“588 now has the distinction of having two buglers. The new one is from Winston-Salem N.C. His calls have a strictly southern drawl to them in contrast to the other bugler who hails from New York. ... Now the squadron has two people to hate instead of one, and the gals have two buglers to swoon over at retreat.”

The local papers faithfully recorded the names of those who shipped out, praised their acts of bravery and mourned those who were lost. Though the young men were from parts far and wide, Clearwater proudly adopted them as native sons.

By the summer of 1943, the last of the military had left for the front and by December of that year – the hotel’s 17th season serving the Clearwater community – the Fort Harrison was back in the luxury hotel business, gearing up for a new influx of tourists.

Goings-on at the hotel were regularly reported in society pages of the Clearwater Sun; this entry appeared just before Christmas 1944:

“At the Episcopal Young People’s League dance the other night, Jim Hammond stood at the top of the balcony stairs of the Ft. Harrison Hotel ballroom with pretty Peggy Moor all ready to lead the grand march. Suddenly, he let out a gasp, tore down the stairs, into the elevator and out of the hotel to the florist. He had forgotten the large bouquet of pink chrysanthemums he was to present to Peggy. But he had remembered it just in the nick of time and, hurrying like the dickens, he made it back to the ballroomas the opening strains of ’White Christmas’ indicated the beginning of the march.”

War ended and an era of post-war prosperity ensued. Business picked up and the hotel business was soon thriving again as the Fort Harrison approached its silver anniversary.