The Congressional Gold Medal will be given to the only all-female, Black unit to serve in Europe during World War II after the House voted to do so unanimously on Monday.
The final tally in the House to award the medal to the unit known as the Six Triple Eight was 422-0. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion served many tasks during the war, including the sorting and routing of mail for millions of American service members and civilians.
The battalion was made up of more than 850 service members, but today only a half-dozen are still alive, including Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon, who is 101 and was overwhelmed to hear of the vote.
“It’s overwhelming,” McClendon said, NBC News reported. “It’s something I never even thought about it. I don’t know if I can stand this.”
The Six Triple Eight had served in England during the war, being credited with solving the mail crisis at the time while also being role models to generations of Black women who joined the military.
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In 2018 a monument was erected at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as one of the first efforts to recognize the long-overlooked battalion for its service. Following the erection of the monument, in 2019, the 6888th was given the Meritorious Unit Commendation.
In 1945 the 6888th was deployed to Birmingham, England, where warehouses were filled with millions of pieces of mail intended for Red Cross workers, U.S. military, and U.S. Government personnel.
Airplane hangars sat full of undelivered Christmas packages, and mail parcels addressed to soldiers with common names or simply “Junior, U.S. Army,” according to the U.S. Army Center of Military History.
The buildings holding the mail were dimly lit, rat-infested, and unheated, but the members of the 6888th were up the task.
The battalion had members working eight-hour shifts on three different schedules to have nonstop work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“They tracked individual servicemembers by maintaining about seven million information cards including serial numbers to distinguish different individuals with the same name. The women dealt with ‘undeliverable’ mail which was sent to their location for redirection,” according to the U.S. Army Center of Military History. “They investigated insufficiently addressed mail for clues to determine the intended recipient, and they handled the sad duty of returning mail addressed to service members who had died.”
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During their time in Birmingham, the members of the Six Triple Eight were a great deal of curiosity for local citizens who would come and watch them work. The woman of the battalion even became friends with those who lived in the community, reportedly being welcomed into private homes for tea.
After three months of nonstop work, the 6888th was able to clear out the 17 million pieces of mail, taking half of the time it was projected to complete the task. The battalion then served for a time in France before it invariably returned home.
However, it has not been until recent memory that the battalion and other Black service members received the credit they deserved for their impact during the war.
New Hampshire Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas released a statement on this after the vote Monday.
“This is a long-overdue honor and recognition for the women of the Six Triple Eight, including New Hampshire’s own Doris Moore,” Pappas said in a statement. “Doris and her sisters in arms were trailblazers and patriots who answered the call to service. It’s even more remarkable that their sacrifice and service in defense of freedom came at a time when many of the very freedoms they fought for were not yet available to them.”
On Monday, the House also voted to rename the Central Park Post Office in Buffalo after a member of the 6888th. The office will now be named the “Indiana Hunt-Martin Post Office building.” Hunt-Martin served in the battalion and died at the age of 98 in 2020.
Along with their medal and monuments, a documentary of the battalion called “The Six Triple Eight” was made about them, and there have even been talks of a movie.
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