---
title: Use your skill to build and fight
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/use-your-skill-to-build-and-fight-engineers-1943/
description: 'Corps of Engineers recruiting poster: a torn white sheet lists about 80 trades (blacksmiths, bridge builders, crane operators.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Use your skill to build and fight

[![Use your skill to build and fight, 1943 US poster: Corps of Engineers recruiting poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/use-your-skill-to-build-and-fight-engineers-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/use-your-skill-to-build-and-fight-engineers-1943.jpg)

# Use your skill to build and fight

Corps of Engineers recruiting poster: a torn white sheet lists about 80 trades (blacksmiths, bridge builders, crane operators, welders and others) above a crane boom, with 'Men 18-38 by voluntary induction' and 'Men 38-50 by voluntary enlistment'. The long list of ordinary trades tells each tradesman there is a place for him; the technique is faint and mostly plain-folks, with the war work shown as construction and combat.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Use Your Skill to BUILD AND FIGHT
MEN 18-38
By VOLUNTARY INDUCTION
MEN 38-50
By VOLUNTARY ENLISTMENT
Corps of Engineers * U.S. Army
[trade list in four columns: Acetylene plant operators; Automobile mechanics; Blacksmiths; Blasters or powdermen; Bridge builders; Cabinetmakers; Camoufleurs; Carpenters; Clerks, statistical; Construction foremen; Crane operators; Diesel mechanics; Diesel operators; Draftsmen; Earth auger operators; Electricians; Electric motor repairmen; Engine lathe operators; Enginemen; Filter operators; Firefighters; Firemen, stationary boilers; Forging press operators; Foundry foremen; Furnacemen, heat treaters; Half-track drivers; Highway machinery operators; Hoist operators; Instrument repairmen; Jackhammer operators; Lathe operators; Linemen; Lumberjacks; Lumber graders; Machine shop foremen; Machinists; Machinist foremen; Master mechanics; Millwrights; Molders; Motorboat operators; Oxygen plant operators; Patternmakers; Photographers; Pipefitters; Pipe line pump station repairers; Plumbers; Power shovel operators; Quarrymen; Radio operators; Repair shop foremen; Riggers; Rock crusher operators; Salvage inspectors; Sawyers; Section foremen, railway; Sheet metal workers; Stationary engineers; Stonemasons; Structural steel workers; Surveyors; Timber cruisers; Tool dressers; Toolmakers; Toolroom keepers; Tractor drivers; Tractor mechanics; Utility repairmen; Warehouse foremen; Water supply foremen; Welders; Well drillers; Woodworking machine operators; Yard foremen]
* Eligible men may also volunteer at any Navy Recruiting Station for service with the Navy Seabees. . This announcement is made with the approval of the Joint Army and Navy Personnel Board.
AVIATION ENGINEERS * PORT CONSTRUCTION * FORESTRY * CAMOUFLAGE * MAINTENANCE * ROAD BUILDING * REPAIR * TOPOGRAPHY * COMBAT - AND MANY OTHERS
[signature: Cooper]
APPLY AT ANY U. S. ARMY RECRUITING STATION OR AT ANY U. S. ENGINEER OFFICE
[imprint: P-65-RPB-6-14-43-25M]
```

[← Use it up - wear it out - make it do!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/use-it-up-wear-it-out-make-it-do-1943/) [La Grande-Bretagne n'a pas cessé d'être une île (Great Britain has not ceased to be an island), ORAFF poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vichy-clemenceau-england-oldest-enemy-oraff-1943/)

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- [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)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [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.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.