BOSTON – The one all-female, Black unit to serve in Europe throughout World Struggle II can be honored with the Congressional Gold Medal.
The 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion of the Ladies’s Army Corps, identified in brief because the Six Triple Eight, will lastly be acknowledged following a long-running marketing campaign to honor the unit tasked with sorting and routing mail for thousands and thousands of American service members and civilians throughout World Struggle II. Solely a half-dozen of the greater than 850 ladies within the unit are nonetheless alive.
The U.S. Home of Representatives voted on the final day of Black Historical past Month to award the highest honor to the unit, whereas the Senate handed the laws final yr.
“It’s overwhelming,” Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon, who’s 101 and lives in Arizona, mentioned when instructed of the vote. “It’s one thing I by no means even considered it. I don’t know if I can stand this.”
The 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion was credited with fixing a rising mail disaster throughout its stint in England and, upon their return to america, serving as a job mannequin to generations of Black ladies who joined the army.
However for many years, the exploits of the 855 members by no means bought wider recognition. However that has modified, beginning a number of years in the past.
A monument was put in place in 2018 at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to honor them, and the 6888th was given the Meritorious Unit Commendation in 2019. A documentary, “The Six Triple Eight,” was made about them. There now could be discuss of a film.
Retired Army Col. Edna Cummings was amongst these advocating for the 6888th.
“The Six Triple Eight was a trail- blazing group of heroes who have been the one all-Black, Ladies Army Corps Battalion to serve abroad throughout World Struggle II,” mentioned Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who sponsored the invoice after being contacted by the daughter of 6888th member Anna Mae Robertson.
“Dealing with each racism and sexism in a conflict zone, these ladies sorted thousands and thousands of items of mail, closing large mail backlogs and guaranteeing service members acquired letters from their family members,” Rep. Moore mentioned. “A Congressional Gold Medal is simply becoming for these veterans who acquired little recognition for his or her service after returning dwelling.”
The U.S. Home of Representatives additionally voted on Feb. 28 to the rename the Central Park Publish Workplace in Buffalo, N.Y., because the “Indiana Hunt-Martin Publish Workplace Constructing” after veteran Indiana Hunt-Martin, a member of the 6888th. Mrs. 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 publish 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 best way for future generations of African-American ladies serving within the army.”
The 6888th was despatched abroad in 1945, a time when there was rising strain from African-American organizations to incorporate Black ladies in what was referred to as the Ladies’s Army Corps, the WACs, and permit them to affix their white counterparts abroad.
The unit dodged German U-boats on their strategy to England and scrambled to flee a German rocket as soon as they reached a Glasgow port. They have been deployed to unheated, rat-infested airplane hangars in Birmingham, England, and given a frightening mission: Course of the thousands and thousands of items of undelivered mail for troops, authorities staff and Purple Cross staff. The mountains of mail had piled up and troops have been grumbling about misplaced letters and delayed care packages. Thus their motto: “No Mail, Low Morale.”
They cleared out a backlog of about 17 million items of mail in three months—half the time projected. The battalion would go on to serve in France earlier than returning dwelling. And like so many Black items throughout World Struggle II, their exploits by no means bought the eye afforded their white counterparts.
Regardless of their achievements, the unit endured questions and criticism from those that didn’t help Black ladies
within the army. Housing, mess halls and recreation services have been segregated by race and gender, forcing them to arrange all their very own operations.
The unit commander, Maj. Charity Adams, additionally was criticized by a normal who threatened to provide her command to a white officer. She reportedly responded, “Over my lifeless physique, sir.”
Most of the ladies had loads of success after getting out of the army.
Elizabeth Barker Johnson was the primary feminine to attend Winston-Salem State College in North Carolina on the GI Invoice. She took half within the faculty’s commencement ceremony on the age of 99 — 70 years after getting her diploma. Mrs. Hunt-Martin labored for the New York State Division of Labor for 41 years.
Maj. McClendon joined the Air Pressure after the army was built-in and retired in 1971. She was the primary feminine to command an all-male squadron with the Strategic Air Com- mand. One other unit member, the late Doris Moore, grew to become the primary Black social employee in New Hampshire, her household mentioned.
“It is a long-overdue honor and recognition for the ladies of the Six Triple Eight, together with New Hampshire’s personal Doris Moore,” New Hampshire Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas mentioned in a press release. “Doris and her sisters in arms have been trailblazers and patriots who answered the decision to service. It’s much more exceptional that their sacrifice and repair in protection of freedom got here at a time when most of the very freedoms they fought for weren’t but out there to them.”
