A Carmel resident found the perfect home for an artifact that had been in her family for decades.
Dr. Angie Bethel presented a $1 bill signed by World War II war correspondent Ernie Pyle to the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum on behalf of her parents, Doyle and Elvie “Bobbie” Bethel. The presentation was made Aug. 10 at a ceremony during the annual Ernie Pyle Fireman’s Festival in Dana, Pyle’s hometown.
The $1 bill was signed by Pyle, former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey and actor Jackie Cooper, among others.
“My mom got the bill in change in the early 1960s,” said Bethel, an endocrinologist who works for Eli Lilly Co., in drug development. “She realized it had been signed by Ernie Pyle and Jack Dempsey and it sat in a drawer for a while. Later on, my father came along and started doing some research, trying to figure out where it came from and who had signed it.”
The $1 bill was signed by Pyle approximately 3 1/2 weeks before he was killed during the Okinawa invasion. Bethel’s father realized it had been signed by Robert Sherrod, then a war correspondent for Time and Life magazines.
“We lived in Georgia, and my father started contacting people and eventually got in contact with Robert Sherrod,” Bethel said.
Sherrod said the bill, called a short snorter, had been signed at a March 25, 1945, farewell party held on Asor Island, a part of the Ulithi Atoll (in the Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean) where the invasion armada preparing for Okinawa was anchored. The unit set sail for Okinawa the next day.
“(Sherrod) helped my dad sort out some of the names that were hard to read,” Bethel said. “It became a part of history because we understood who the signers were and where it happened.”
The tradition of short snorters was created because commercial pilots and military pilots, particularly during World War II, realized alcohol and flying planes didn’t mix, and their portions or snorts of whiskey were smaller. The $1 dollar bills became known as short snorters, and the term became associated with the $1 bills fellow pilots would sign and exchange. The tradition required when the pilots met again, if one still didn’t have the short snorter in his possession, it was his duty to buy the other pilot’s drinks.
“When my father passed away (in November 2023), I had the bill come to me and thought it should be some place where it could be exhibited and appreciated,” said Bethel, whose mother is still living.
After doing some research, Bethel discovered that Pyle was from Indiana and learned about the museum.
Dempsey joined the U.S. Coast Guard during the war and was in Ulithi preparing to command an assault boat onto the beaches of Okinawa. Cooper served in the Navy during World War II, but it is unknown why he was at Ulithi or whether he was part of the Okinawa invasion.
“We are thrilled that Dr. Bethel decided to donate this artifact created by Ernie less than a month before he died to our museum,” stated Steve Key, president of the board of the Friends of Ernie Pyle Development Fund, Inc., which operates the museum in Dana. “The short snorter is an example of how the war brought people from diverse backgrounds all across the United States together in unusual places all across the globe.”
For more information, visit erniepyle.org.
