Air Force base needs help recovering at least 72 stolen ‘ride dollars’ in Texas

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — A Texas Air Force Base is asking the public's help to return at least 72 treasured keepsakes that have gone missing known as "ride dollars" 

Ride dollars are $1 bills given to instructor pilots when a pilot trainee takes his or her first flight. The bills often have something written on them or have a picture as a memento of the important moment for both student and teacher.

The tradition supposedly stems from the 1900s, when two-seater plane pilots would charge a customer a dollar to sit in the front seat and pretend they were flying the plane.

According to a 2018 Air Force article about the tradition of the dollar flight, in the United States Air Force, student pilots in training are not graded on their first-ever flight.

Since the student cannot fail this task, the student pilot must give their instructor the decorated dollar to pay them back for the ride. For many young pilots, their “dollar ride” is the highlight of their pilot-training experience.

Instructors often keep these ride dollars on or in their desks and recently, 82 of them went missing from Sheppard Air Force Base north of Wichita Falls.

Ten ride dollars were recently recovered at the Stripes convenience store just outside the base that were used to make purchases.

The Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce posted pictures of the recovered bills in a social media post Tuesday.