Bernice Tongate; Navy’s First Recruiting Poster Pin-Up Girl

Bernice Tongate, considered the Navy’s first pin-up girl when she became the model in a popular World War I Navy recruiting poster, has died.

Mrs. Tongate, who was 92 when she died Jan. 16, said she decided to join the Navy in 1917 after reading about women enlisting in Washington, D.C.

Well-known poster artist Howard Chandler Christy happened to be in the Los Angeles recruiting office that day. One of the men loaned the new recruit a Navy cap, jumper and neckerchief, and Christy’s drawing of her was soon posted around the country with the words: “Gee, I wish I were a man. I’d join the Navy.”

Mrs. Tongate was a chief yeoman when she was discharged in 1920.

When the Navy said she was too old to re-enlist during World War II, she joined the Army instead.

She had two grandsons who served in Vietnam.