Content note: Cartoon about venereal disease among sailors, including a sailor struck by lightning and a pin-up fantasy bubble. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Lightning can strike twice
Cartoon poster for sailors: three small panels ('Very Dumb of me!', 'Once is too much of any VD', 'but brother what is that I see?') beside a large figure of a sailor struck by lightning on the stairs below a 'Dispensary' sign, headed 'Lightning can strike twice'. The tell is the jolt of shock and pain shown as the cost of repeat infection, in a comic style.
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, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1291 (NAID 514897).
Text on the object
didn't think... Very Dumb of me! DISPENSARY Once is too much of any VD ..but brother..what is that I see? DISPENSARY Lightning can strike twice [signature:] BODE [imprint:] VP-14-Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, U.S. Navy [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-620625 [imprint:] Prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Naval Medical School, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md.
