December 10, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Apparently, it was a fairly common practice of US Army Aviation Cadets to keep an annotated $1 bill in their billfolds that documented their saga of aviation training. I’d heard this from my Dad (long since deceased) and a few others, but the actual item from my Dad just recently surfaced after having been buried in family papers for so many years. I thought you might be interested in this brief summation of my Dad’s WWII Aviation Cadet saga following his enlistment at “The Battery” in lower Manhattan, New York City in 1943:
Fort Dix, New Jersey 11-16-43 to 11-22-43
Greensboro, North Carolina 1-22-43 to 4-8-44
George Field, Illinois 4-9-44 to 4-29-44
Concord College, West Virginia 4-30-44 to 6-29-44
Freeman Field, Indiana 6-29-44 to 1-3-45 (an interesting story about this place to follow in a future posting)
San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center, Texas 1-4-45 to 1-18-45
Prefilght, San Antonio, Texas 1-18-45 to 4-11-45 (graduated pre-flight 3-20-45)
Pampa Army Air Field, Texas 4-12-45 to 9-25-45 (advanced flight training in B-25s)
Ellington Field, Texas 10-10-45 (awaiting mustering out, flying backseat in AT-6s performing target-towing duties, etc. The war had come to an end!)
Just a little bit of history from my Dad, one of the many of “the greatest generation!”


By: J Boyle - 10th December 2010 at 21:01
I believe such signed bills were called “Short-snorters”…per Ernest K. Gann’s Flying Circus.
By: Bager1968 - 10th December 2010 at 20:36
Ah, yes… good old “silver certificates”.
When the government based the value of money on the value of silver in the metals market, not on hopes, wishes, and promises.