Boy! What a break! Army Specialized Training Reserve Program
Recruiting poster for the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program: three smiling uniformed students with books walk past a collegiate Gothic building beneath the headline 'Boy! What a break!'. The text offers free college training to 17-year-old high-school graduates, stressing the benefit and leaving out the service obligation, the card-stacking technique of selective emphasis.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Army (Army Specialized Training Reserve Program)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 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
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Army (Army Specialized Training Reserve Program). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-504 (NAID 513984).
Text on the object
Boy! What a break! ASTRP The Army Specialized Training Reserve Program offers high school graduates who are 17 but not yet 17 years and 9 months of age free college training. For information apply at any U. S. Army Recruiting Station or consult your high school principal. ARMY SPECIALIZED TRAINING RESERVE PROGRAM [imprint: P-149--RPB--11-13-44--60M]
