American Propaganda
SPARS: Release a Man to Fight at Sea, 1943 US poster: A smiling woman in Coast Guard uniform stands beside a large American

SPARS: Release a Man to Fight at Sea

SPARS: Release a Man to Fight at Sea (1943), Charles Andres's Coast Guard recruiting poster

Charles Andres's 1943 SPARS poster puts a woman in Coast Guard uniform beside the flag: "RELEASE A MAN TO FIGHT AT SEA." NAID 515464.

Techniques named on the archive record

Transfer
Date
1943
Made by
U.S. Navy, Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS); artist Charles Andres, USNR
Medium
Poster
Country
United States
Regime
Roosevelt Administration
NARA
NAID 515464; Record Group 44
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026
Source
Public domain (U.S. government work) U.S. Navy. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1786 (NAID 515464).

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

SPARS: Release a Man to Fight at Sea is a 1943 recruiting poster for the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, signed Charles Andres, USNR. A smiling woman in Coast Guard uniform stands beside a large American flag, and applicants are sent to a Navy recruiting station or an Office of Naval Officer Procurement (NAID 515464).

The woman and the flag

The figure is a woman in Coast Guard uniform, smiling, next to a large American flag. The archive places the words "ENLIST IN THE COAST GUARD" and "SPARS" on a brown panel. The recruiting line states what her enlistment is for.

[signature:] CHARLES ANDRES USNR

U.S. COAST GUARD

ENLIST IN THE COAST GUARD

SPARS

RELEASE A MAN TO FIGHT AT SEA

Apply to your nearest

NAVY RECRUITING STATION OR OFFICE OF NAVAL OFFICER PROCUREMENT

ORDER NO. 20

NRB-34901-2-2-43-23500

A job defined by the man it frees

The slogan describes the woman's service by what it makes possible for someone else. She enlists so that a man can go to sea. As a recruiting promise that is candid, and it is also a limit: the sheet offers no description of what she would do, only of whom she would replace.

The archive tags transfer, with the flag lending its meaning to enlistment. The record's purpose field reads "Recruit," and its themes include "Gender and suffrage." No pay, training or term of service appears on the sheet.

The poster says "U.S. COAST GUARD" but sends applicants to Navy offices, and the record credits it to the U.S. Navy. The artist signed with USNR, the Naval Reserve. The record does not explain the arrangement.

Enlistment here was voluntary, and the appeal is a plain one: a uniform, a flag, and a reason.

The Navy's Enlist in the WAVES of the same year uses the same slogan, "RELEASE A MAN TO FIGHT AT SEA," for its own women's reserve. The earlier Coast Guard sheet Serve with SPARS sets its recruit before the flag and the Coast Guard ensign. The More Women at Work the Sooner We Win! asks women into civilian jobs instead.

Sources

  • FRAME object record, SPARS: Release a Man to Fight at Sea, 1943. U.S. Navy, Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS); artist Charles Andres, USNR.
  • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1786, NAID 515464, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).