# Pledge of the Soldier of Supply (1943), the Army's oath for its civilian workers Pledge of the Soldier of Supply is a 1943 poster of the U.S. Army Supply Services and Army Service Forces Depots. Beside an eagle on a furled American flag, a shield-shaped panel prints a first-person pledge for civilian employees, who are told they are soldiers too, over the badges of seven supply branches (NAID 515188). - Home - Archive - Pledge of the Soldier of Supply (1943), the Army's oath for its civilian workers Pledge of the Soldier of Supply Pledge of the Soldier of Supply (1943), the Army's oath for its civilian workers The Army's 1943 Pledge of the Soldier of Supply calls its supply civilians soldiers and has each promise the fighting man "shall not want." NAID 515188. ## Techniques named on the archive record Identity fusionGlittering generalities Date1943Made byU.S. Army Supply Services, Army Service Forces DepotsMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 515188; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) U.S. Army Supply Services, Army Service Forces Depots. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1522 (NAID 515188). Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records. Full record at propagandaarchive.org Pledge of the Soldier of Supply is a 1943 poster of the U.S. Army Supply Services and Army Service Forces Depots. Beside an eagle on a furled American flag, a shield-shaped panel prints a first-person pledge for civilian employees, who are told they are soldiers too, over the badges of seven supply branches (NAID 515188). ## A pledge written in the first person The text is written to be read as one's own: after "We are at War...", it speaks as "I." The archive describes an eagle perched on a furled flag beside a shield-shaped panel, with the badges of seven Army supply branches below. PLEDGE OF THE SOLDIER of SUPPLY We are at War... I know that my country's victory depends upon the courage, the endurance and the skill of our men who fight on land, at sea and in the air. [...] For I am a Soldier of Supply. I am a comrade of the American fighting man. I promise never to let him down. The way I do my job may decide whether he lives or dies. [...] I am his comrade and I promise that he shall not want! [Every Civilian Member of the Army Supply Services is a Soldier of Supply] [...] Reproductions of this poster suitable for framing, size 8 in. by 10 in., available upon request. Also available in wallet or purse size. Transcription in the FRAME record, cut where marked. Imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943--O-517760. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 515188, local id 44-PA-1522, Record Group 44. ## Civilians renamed as soldiers The bracketed line settles who is speaking: every civilian member of the Army Supply Services. The poster calls those civilian employees soldiers and gives them a comradeship with the men at the front. The archive tags identity fusion for exactly this move, and glittering generalities for the promises. Its audience field reads "Own forces," which fits a sheet meant for the Army's own workforce, and its purpose is "Mobilize or secure compliance." The needs the pledge lists are concrete: arms, food, trucks, tanks and planes, clothing, medicines. The pressure sits in one sentence: "The way I do my job may decide whether he lives or dies." It puts a soldier's life on every employee's conscience. ## Framed, and carried in a wallet A printed line offers copies for framing at 8 by 10 inches and in wallet or purse size. The Army wanted the pledge on the wall and in the pocket. A pledge a worker takes freely is a fine thing. One printed for both the wall and the wallet can start to look like a condition of the job; nothing on the sheet says anyone was required to take it. The Petroleum Industry War Council made a related argument to oil workers in Oil Is Ammunition!. The Army's A Blow to the Axis asks loggers for lumber. The Roosevelt administration essay places the period's posters inside the government that issued them. ## Sources - FRAME object record, Pledge of the Soldier of Supply, 1943. U.S. Army Supply Services, Army Service Forces Depots. - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1522, NAID 515188, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work). Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/pledge-of-the-soldier-of-supply-1943/