Image from US Dept of Defense via history.army.mil

A new film heralds the service of 855 Black women soldiers who comprised the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. Think they were mere mail clerks? The women of the ”Six Triple Eight” landed in England to hangars full of undelivered mail stacked to the ceilings. The backlog was over two years. Envelope addresses were near indecipherable.

Yet, these envelopes and packages were the slender threads connecting seven million soldiers in Europe to home. “No Mail, Low Morale” was the 6888th’s slogan.

Read all about the only all-Black, all-female battalion to serve overseas in WWII. The seven surviving members should receive Congressional Gold Medals this year.