Army Maj. Charity E. Adams and Capt. Abbie N. Campbell of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion examine the primary contingent of black members of the Ladies’s Army Corps assigned to abroad service in Birmingham, England, Feb. 15, 1945. Photograph By: Army/N
WASHINGTON – The all-Black girls’s Army Corps unit to serve in Europe throughout World Struggle II will likely be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal greater than 75 years after being credited with fixing a rising mail disaster and serving as function fashions to future generations of Black girls within the army.
Congress’ highest civilian honor is being awarded to the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion, also referred to as the “Six Triple Eight,” after a invoice was signed into legislation on March 14 by President Joe Biden. The legislation acknowledges “their pioneering army service, devotion to obligation, and contributions to extend the morale of personnel stationed within the European theater of operations throughout World Struggle II.”
The bipartisan laws was co-sponsored by Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., following a long-running marketing campaign to acknowledge the unit tasked with sorting and routing mail for thousands and thousands of American service members and civilians — the one lifeline connecting them to family members at residence.
The Six Triple Eight cleared out a backlog of about 17 million items of mail in three months, which was half the time projected. However like so many Black models throughout World Struggle II, their achievements by no means obtained the identical consideration given their White counterparts.
Solely six of the greater than 850 members had been nonetheless alive as of Feb. 28, in line with the Related Press.
The invoice to acknowledge the Six Triple Eight handed unanimously within the Senate in April 2021 and likewise acquired a 422-0 vote final month by the Home.
“The ladies of the Six Triple Eight have earned a particular place in historical past for his or her service to our nation, and as of right this moment, their sacrifice is enshrined into legislation with the very best distinction Congress can bestow,” Moran mentioned in a press release final week.
What’s the Ghost Army?
The Ghost Army refers to a secret unit that used inflatable tools, sound results, radio trickery, and different deceptions to attract enemy forces away from American models, saving an estimated 30,000 lives.
The Six Triple Eight’s historic WWII mission
By 1945, roughly 7 million U.S. service members, Purple Cross employees, and authorities personnel had been stationed in Europe, and mail “was the lifeline connecting them to these that they had left again residence,” the Division of Protection mentioned in a current assertion.
That 12 months alone, greater than 3.3 billion items of mail went by army postal companies to achieve the frontlines, in line with Kimberly Guise, the Nationwide WWII Museum senior curator.
However the abundance of mail and a scarcity of certified postal employees to kind it led to “an enormous backlog of letters and packages, a few of which had been mailed as much as three years prior,” the DoD mentioned.
Photograph: Members of the Ladies’s Army Corps 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion kind packages taken from mail sacks by French civilian workers on the seventeenth Base Put up Workplace in Paris, France, Nov. 7, 1945. Photograph By: Army/Nationwide Archives
This led to the creation of the Six Triple Eight, which was made up of 5 corporations totaling about 850 Black girls tasked with sorting by the backlog in unheated airplane hangars. They had been commanded by Army Maj. Charity Adams, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and have become the highest-ranking Black girl throughout the conflict.
Whereas the unit didn’t go to the frontlines, its troopers nonetheless needed to undergo weeks of fundamental coaching, which included impediment programs and gasoline masks drills, Guise mentioned. The ladies additionally studied enemy plane, ships and weapons, discovered to board and evacuate ships, and even went on lengthy marches with rucksacks, in line with the DoD.
They had been deployed to England in February 1945, dodging German U-boats on their manner and scrambling to flee a German rocket as soon as they reached a Glasgow port.
The battalion then traveled to the chilly, rat-infested airplane hangars in Birmingham, England, and was given the daunting mission of processing the thousands and thousands of undelivered mail for troops and different WWII employees. The mountains of mail had piled up and troops had been typically upset about misplaced letters and delayed care packages. Thus their motto, “No Mail, Low Morale.”
“It was a frightening job. Not solely had been they sorting mail, however the important basis of their mission was to spice up morale throughout the whole lot of deployed U.S. forces,” the DoD mentioned. “Most frontline troopers hadn’t acquired any mail in months, so the unit took the mission very critically.”
One of many job’s many problems included when girls got here throughout recipients with the identical names.
“For instance, reviews confirmed there have been 7,500 males named Robert Smith. The unit additionally needed to examine and decipher items of mail that solely listed nicknames for the recipients or had inadequate addresses. The ladies typically resorted to utilizing serial and/or service numbers to determine the proper recipient,” the DoD defined.
Ladies’s Army Corps Cpl. Alyce Dixon poses with members of her unit throughout World Struggle II. She and about 850 different black girls served with the 6888th Postal Listing Battalion in England and France. The battalion was chargeable for clearing a backlog
Tried mail deliveries had been additionally continuously bounced again since service members had been typically transferring places. Because of this, the unit needed to then re-sort the mail, discover a new location for its recipient and check out once more. Each bit of mail was labored for 30 days, in line with the Army Fight Research Institute.
“If the recipient could not be situated in that point, the mail was marked as undeliverable and returned to the sender. When unit members found that an meant service-member recipient had died, that they had the unenviable job of dealing with that return mail,” the DoD mentioned.
The ladies processed 65,000 items of mail per eight-hour shift and cleared what was regarded as a six-month backlog in solely half that point — a complete of about 17 million items of mail, the DoD mentioned, citing Army historians.
After that job was completed, the 6888th was despatched to Rouen, France, in June 1945 to proceed their mission and commenced work just a few weeks after victory was declared in Europe. The unit cleared a equally sized backlog simply as rapidly because it did in England with the assistance of French civilians and German prisoners of conflict, in line with the DoD.
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Ladies of 6888th endure sexism, racism
Regardless of the achievements of the Six Triple Eight, it nonetheless endured questions and criticism from those that didn’t help Black girls within the army.
Housing, mess halls and recreation amenities had been segregated by race and intercourse, forcing them to arrange all their very own operations. Adams, the unit commander, was additionally criticized by a normal who threatened to offer her command to a White officer. She reportedly responded, “Over my lifeless physique, sir.”
Members of the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion eat collectively within the unit’s mess corridor in Birmingham, England, Feb. 15, 1945. Photograph By: Army/Nationwide Archives
A number of Black male service members additionally assumed the ladies had been despatched to Europe to offer them with companionship — a notion the ladies of the 6888th rapidly set straight, in line with the Nationwide Museum of the U.S. Army (NMUSA). The Purple Cross denied the 6888th entry to their membership and as a substitute opened a segregated membership for the ladies, however the battalion by no means set foot in it to point out their united disapproval of such a slight, the DoD mentioned.
Moreover, among the unit’s leisure basketball gamers had been invited to play on an Army all-star crew, however the invitation was rescinded when the Army discovered the ladies had been Black, in line with the NMUSA — which mentioned that mixing races in models was in opposition to Army coverage on the time, even for sports activities groups. The crew later handled the snub by successful the European theater’s basketball championship that 12 months, the museum mentioned.
When three members of the unit died in a Jeep crash in early July 1945, the U.S. Struggle Division did not present funds for his or her funerals, in line with the DoD. This prompted the unit to collect its personal cash to carry out the companies to bury the fallen girls in Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
“Going through each racism and sexism in a warzone, these girls sorted thousands and thousands of items of mail, closing huge mail backlogs, and making certain service members acquired letters from their family members,” mentioned Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore final month. Moore sponsored the invoice within the Home after being contacted by the daughter of 6888th members Anna Mae Robertson.
“A Congressional Gold Medal is just becoming for these veterans who acquired little recognition for his or her service after returning residence,” Moore added.
Members of the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion participate in a parade and ceremony on Could 27, 1945, which was held in honor of Joan of Arc on the market the place she was burned on the stake in Rouen, France. Photograph By: Army/Nationwide Archive
Eventual recognition of the 6888th
Over time, there was belated recognition of the unit and its achievements by displays, instructional packages and different public occasions.
A monument was erected in 2018 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to honor the 6888th, and the unit was given the Meritorious Unit Commendation in 2019. A documentary referred to as “The Six Triple Eight” was additionally made about them.
Troopers greet and collect round World Struggle II Army veteran Alyce Dixon, 106, after the Pentagon honored her in a ceremony for Ladies’s Historical past Month, March 31, 2014. Dixon served within the Ladies’s Army Corps 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion, the
The Home additionally voted final month to rename the Central Park Put up Workplace in Buffalo because the “Indiana Hunt-Martin Put up Workplace Constructing” after veteran Indiana Hunt-Martin, a member of the 6888th. Hunt-Martin died in 2020 on the age of 98.
“All through her life and army service, Indiana Hunt-Martin skilled racism and sexism firsthand, however no quantity of discrimination prevented her from serving her nation,” New York Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins, who sponsored the put up workplace invoice and likewise was a co-sponsor of the Congressional Gold Medal invoice, mentioned in a press release. “Her braveness and bravado paved the way in which for future generations of African American girls serving within the army.”
It was not but clear when the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony could be held. Whereas solely a handful of members of the 6888th are nonetheless dwelling to obtain the medal, the DoD mentioned it will “cement their place in World Struggle II historical past.”
“It’s overwhelming,” Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon, who’s 101 and lives in Arizona, mentioned final month when instructed of the invoice being handed in Congress. “It’s one thing I by no means even thought of it. I don’t know if I can stand this.”
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This story was reported from Cincinnati. The Related Press contributed.
