"I'd given up hope . . ."
Army Nurse Corps recruiting poster: a photograph of a wounded soldier in a hospital bed, with the headline in quotation marks and his named account of being hit in Normandy. The footer reads 'More nurses are needed'. A named patient's own words supply the testimonial for enlisting nurses.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Army Nurse Corps
- 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, Health
- 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 Nurse Corps. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1043 (NAID 514569).
Text on the object
"I'D GIVEN UP HOPE . . ." PRIVATE FIRST CLASS LORENZO CATLETT, infantryman from Louisburg, North Carolina "It was artillery fire that got me. We were going into a hedgerow in Normandy to clean out some Germans, but they pulled out and their artillery boxed us in. I got it between the shoulders. The pressure on my spine paralyzed me from the ribs down. All the medics in my outfit had been killed or wounded. I lay there a long while before someone found me. By that time my wound had become infected. They gave me plasma and carried me first to an aid station and then to an evacuation hospital set up on the beach. I'd given up hope. All I wanted was to die. I wanted to get it over with. But those Army nurses gave me new hope. They told me I'd pull through, and I am pulling through. I still have to be operated on to get back the use of my legs. I've got a lot more pain ahead of me. But it's good to know the nurses won't let me down." MORE NURSES ARE NEEDED U.S. ARMY NURSE CORPS [imprint:] P-133—RPB—9-6-44—20M
