I should have gone to the pro station
Navy venereal-disease prevention poster: a sailor in a dunce cap marked 'DUNCE' writes 'I should have gone to the pro station' repeatedly on a blackboard. The shaming label and school-punishment image make a stigma the warning; the poster's own name for the facility is 'pro station'.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Navy, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (artist: Bode)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, War and the military
- 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. Navy. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1038 (NAID 514564).
Text on the object
I should have gone to the pro station [repeated across six lines, partly covered by the figure: I should have gone to the pro station / [should have gone to the pro station / [illegible] gone to the pro station / the pro station / the pro station / the pro station / to the] DUNCE [signature:] BODE [imprint:] VP-13—Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, U.S. Navy [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944—O—615409 [imprint:] Prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Naval Medical School, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md.
