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Prepared from the source scan: surroundings removed and the sheet levelled where required. The source record remains available below.
The Posters That Went to War · The Home Front
Guide the Fighter Planes: Join the Army Air Forces Ground Observer Corps
Unknown (the NARA record names no artist) · U.S. Army Air Forces, Ground Observer Corps, 1941–1945
Format
Archival pigment giclée on museum-grade matte art paper, color-managed to the source scan — the flat inks and stone grain intact. The 40×60 is the room-changer.
Size
$39.00
What it is
A recruiting poster for the Ground Observer Corps of the Army Air Forces, dated between 1941 and 1945, held by the National Archives as 44-PA-923 in its World War II Posters series.
Why it matters
The Office of War Information ran from June 1942 to September 1945 as the link between the battlefront and the civilian communities, and a corps of ground observers was exactly such a link.
What to notice
The headline gives the observer on the ground a hand in the flight, the fighter guided from below.
A watcher on the ground, steering the sky.
Provenance
- School
- The Second World War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- Unknown (the NARA record names no artist)
- Campaign
- Enlist
- Service
- Air Service and Air Forces
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- U.S. Army Air Forces, Ground Observer Corps, 1941–1945
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Posters series (NAID 514429, local id 44-PA-923), NARA scan via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons · NARA NAID 514429 · 44-PA-923
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government work (the WPA Federal Art Project, the wartime agencies), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-02. National Archives catalogue re-read 2026-11-02 (NAID 514429, 44-PA-923): use restriction Unrestricted, access Unrestricted.
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