John P. Benson Short Snorter
The Short Snorter Project
This "classic" short snorter belonged to John P. Benson who was an Army Air Corps Navigator during World War 2 and
served in the China-Burma-India Theatre of Operation. His snorter starts with an emergency note issued for use by the
Armed Forces in Europe and North Africa. They were issued in 1, 5, and 10 dollar denominations. It contains the name of
the owner, date, location, "short snorter", and many signatures both front and back. The other bank notes in the snorter
are dated. This allows us to follow his route flown from the United States all the way to China and back (see map below).

The Benson family has published John P. Benson's World War Two Army Air Corps
memoirs which is offered exclusively through The Short Snorter Project.
Click here for more information about purchasing a soft copy at a low, Internet only, price.
Map of John P. Benson's Overseas Route with Short Snorters
The note card reads:
John Paul Benson was drafted into the Army on August 24, 1942. He became an aviation
cadet and graduated as a Navigator on February 5, 1944. He finished bombardier training,
instructed for several months, trained in the B-25 bomber, and then was flown overseas by
the Air Transport Command in a C-54 passenger plane on a trip that began February 27,
1945. Lt. Benson began a short snorter on the eastbound trip and added bills from the
countries visited. He dated each bill and the direction of travel. This display will show both
the
eastbound and westbound routes, and the bills associated with the places visited.
World War 2 era photograph of Lt. John Paul Benson, Army Air Corps. (Courtesy of his son Fred Benson)