Background:

Servicemen who went overseas during World War II almost universally started collecting examples of the strange, to them, currency that became the legal tender for their pay and purchases.

Your Web Master was no exception to this. Like others, he started a “Short Snorter,” adding to it every time that he was exposed to new currency including “Occupation Money.” Unfortunately, for him, his Short Snorter, like much of his other WWII “stuff” was taken to “show and tell” by one of his progeny, but some how not brought back home.

Thus when, at MM-99, Calvin Floren gave him a Bank of England 10 Shilling note that had been signed by several with the obvious intention of starting a “Short Snorter,” it was like an early Christmas present.

The value to me was that, not only had Calvin and I signed it, but so had my co-pilot, Donald R. Druliner. Calvin’s Crew and mine had been on the same shipment to England. We probably started our “Short Snorters” at Stone and passed them around for signatures.

The reason that I value this so highly is that during the Battle of the Bulge, on Christmas Day, 1944, Dru was ’loaned’ to another crew which was shot down with no survivors. Dru’s signature on the “Short Snorter” that Calvin gave me and a very small photo of our crew is all that is left for me of Dru, save memories of a very fine young man.

Thank you Calvin!