Regulars and ex-regulars is a 1938 U.S. Army recruiting handbill in red and blue type. It tells soldiers leaving the service, and men honorably discharged within three years, that they can enlist in the Regular Army Reserve if they are fit, unmarried and under thirty-six (NAID 515288).
The offer, in full
There is no picture. The archive describes red and blue type inside a blue border, set out as a short exchange: a question, the word "How?", and an answer. The whole sheet fits in a few lines.
REGULARS AND EX-REGULARS
Do you know that you can remain a part of the REGULAR ARMY after your return to CIVIL LIFE?
HOW? By Enlisting In-- THE REGULAR ARMY RESERVE
If you are leaving the active service, or if you were Honorably Discharged from the REGULAR ARMY within the last three years, are physically qualified, unmarried, and under thirty-six years of age, then it will pay you to enlist in the REGULAR ARMY RESERVE
INVESTIGATE! Apply at any Army Recruiting Station
[imprint: LX-14--RPB--5-20-38--15M]
How it persuades
Very little. The archive tags card stacking and says no device beyond the one-sided pitch is strong. That is fair. The sheet says "it will pay you to enlist," and it does not say what a reservist gets, for how long, or what he owes in return. Those are the facts a man would want before signing, and the handbill sends him to a recruiting station to ask.
What it does state plainly are the limits: active service or an honorable discharge within three years, physical fitness, being unmarried, and an age under thirty-six. It is an offer to a defined group of volunteers, with the conditions on the face of it.
The imprint and the sister poster
The bottom line, "LX-14--RPB--5-20-38--15M," is printed as a code. Neither the sheet nor the FRAME record explains it, so it stays undecoded here. The catalog dates the sheet to 1938 and files it with the National Archives' World War II posters.
The same Reserve offer appears, with a picture, on Remain with the colors, be a modern minute man, also from 1938. Later Army recruiting on this site includes the 1940 reprint of Flagg's Uncle Sam.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Regulars and ex-regulars, 1938. U.S. Army. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1622, NAID 515288, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.
