---
title: Keep 'em flying! Air crews are vital for victory
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-em-flying-air-crews-vital-1942/
description: 'Army Air Forces aviation-cadet recruiting poster: a colour photograph of six airmen in flight jackets and service caps studying a map beneath a formation'
section: Collection
---

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3. Keep 'em flying! Air crews are vital for victory

[![Keep 'em flying! Air crews are vital for victory, 1942 US poster: Army Air Forces aviation-cadet recruiting poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-em-flying-air-crews-vital-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-em-flying-air-crews-vital-1942.jpg)

# Keep 'em flying! Air crews are vital for victory

Army Air Forces aviation-cadet recruiting poster: a colour photograph of six airmen in flight jackets and service caps studying a map beneath a formation of four-engine bombers, under the slogan 'Keep 'em flying!'. The tell is transfer, the prestige of uniforms and aircraft attached to enlistment, plus the abstract 'vital for victory'. Text gives the age range (18 to 26) and where to apply.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
KEEP 'EM FLYING!
Air Crews Are Vital For Victory
YOUNG MEN, 18 TO 26 INCLUSIVE, CAN BE
AVIATION CADETS FOR AIR CREW TRAINING
AS BOMBARDIERS, NAVIGATORS AND PILOTS.
APPLY AT ANY U.S. ARMY RECRUITING AND INDUCTION STATION
[signature: Ivan Dmitri]
[imprint: Photo by Ivan Dmitri, Courtesy of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST]
[imprint: P-16-RPB-5-14-42-10MM]
```

Imprint print is very small; digits of the code are partly uncertain.

[← Kam to dotiahnu? (Where will they get to?), Ľudové noviny](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kam-to-dotiahnu-ludove-noviny-1942/) ["Keep 'em Flying" is our battle cry! First class fighting men needed →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-em-flying-first-class-fighting-men-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)