Marine heroes America will never forget
Reproduction of a Saturday Evening Post article page, 'Last Man Off Wake Island' by Lt. Col. Walter L. J. Bayler, USMC, with an aerial photo of the atoll and a portrait of the author. A hand-lettered slogan is laid across the text and a Post logo block sits at lower right. The tell is a first-person eyewitness account (testimonial) under a slogan praising 'heroes' (glittering generalities).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Unnamed issuer; reprint of a Saturday Evening Post page (Curtis Publishing Company) with Official U.S. Navy photographs
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Commemorate
- 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)
Issuer not printed (Saturday Evening Post page reprint). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1335 (NAID 514989).
Text on the object
April 3, 1943 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 12 LAST MAN OFF WAKE ISLAND By LT. COL. WALTER L. J. BAYLER, USMC As Told to CECIL CARNES [credit:] OFFICIAL U. S. NAVY FROM the rail of the U.S.S. Wright, nine days out of Pearl Harbor, I watched the island of Wake grow slowly more distinct [partly covered by slogan] 1941. In ten days, this sm[all] [partly covered] destined to look like som[e] [partly covered] depths of hell. The [partly covered] smoke-blackened ruin[s] [partly covered] and the long smooth b[each] [partly covered] torn and splintered and strewn with pieces of shrapnel. [partly covered] with shell holes and strewn with pieces of shrapnel. But on that sunny morning we had no premonition of trouble. Japan was threatening once more, pointing a gun at the Pacific like an international stick-up man, but such a state of affairs was chronic, and I couldn't recall the time when Japan hadn't done just that. A favorite topic of conversation was the expected arrival of Major Putnam, USMC, with his squadron [remaining lines of the second and third columns are partly covered by the slogan and the Post block, and the reduced type is not reliably legible: [illegible]] MARINE HEROES America will never forget [credit:] OFFICIAL U. S. NAVY The author, who found Wake Island-the day before Pearl Harbor-beautiful and utterly peaceful. THE SATURDAY EVENING POST PRINTED IN U.S.A. 4-3-43
The poster's own slogan covers parts of the article columns; covered passages are marked and not reconstructed. Article text is a reduced-size magazine page, only partly legible.
