MOULTRIE, Ga. — When Willie Belle Irvin left Moultrie in 1944, she wasn’t attempting to make historical past.
Irvin joined the Girls’s Army Corps on July 19, 1944 — 43 days after D-Day and simply over a 12 months after the WAC was shaped by order of President Franklin Roosevelt. She was assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion.
The battalion, composed solely of Black ladies, arrived in Birmingham, England, in February 1945 and served there and in France earlier than returning to the USA and being decommissioned in March 1946. The “Six Triple Eight” was the one African-American WAC unit to serve abroad throughout World Warfare II.
On Monday, the battalion’s contributions had been acknowledged when President Joe Biden signed an act to award the unit a Congressional Gold Medal.
The act was launched within the U.S. Senate Feb. 12, 2021, by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas. Earlier than closing passage it had gained 75 cosponsors, together with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. It handed the Senate by unanimous consent Feb. 12, 2021.
The Home obtained the invoice the subsequent day, the place it was sponsored by Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wisconsin. The Home authorized it, 422-0, on Feb. 28, 2022. By then it had gained 295 co-sponsors, together with six representatives from Georgia, all Democrats.
On Wednesday, Moran, Moore and two co-sponsors, Sen. Jacky Rosen and Rep. Jake LaTurner, wrote to the Nationwide Mint to encourage it to expedite the minting of the Congressional Gold Medal.
“As of the signing of this invoice into legislation, solely six ladies who served within the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion are nonetheless residing,” the letter says. “It’s critical that we expedite the creation of this medal so these ladies can lastly obtain a tangible image of our nation’s gratitude.”
Irvin handed away in 1990 on the age of 66, in accordance with her daughter, Brenda Partridge Brown, who has written a ebook about her mom’s navy connection.
The 6888th was not the one Black feminine unit to be deployed abroad throughout World Warfare II, in accordance with navy historians. Teams of Black nurses served in Liberia in 1943 and within the European Theater in 1944, however these items weren’t a part of the Girls’s Army Corps. WAC items composed of white ladies had been deployed in all theaters of the battle.
However the postal battalion was the one WAC unit composed of African-People that was deployed abroad throughout that point.
After they arrived in Birmingham, the WACs confronted an enormous backlog of mail. A normal predicted it might take six months to kind it out and get it delivered to servicemen, different authorities personnel and Pink Cross staff. The 6888th achieved the mission in three months.
The unit was transferred to Rouen, France, the place a fair bigger backlog awaited them. Warehouses the dimensions of plane hangars had been stuffed with letters and packages. Three members of the unit died in a Jeep accident whereas in Rouen.
As soon as they’d organized and processed the backlog, the servicewomen had been despatched to Paris in October 1945. By then, about 300 of the 800-plus members of the unit had been despatched again to the USA. 2 hundred extra rotated out in January 1946, and the rest — together with Irvin — returned to the U.S. in February. The 6888th was disbanded the next month.
For many years, the exploits of the 855 members by no means acquired wider recognition, in accordance with an Related Press article concerning the Congressional Gold Medal. However that has modified, beginning a number of years in the past.
A monument was erected in 2018 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to honor them, the AP story mentioned, and the 6888th was given the Meritorious Unit Commendation in 2019. A documentary “The Six Triple Eight” was made about them. There may be speak of a film.
“The Six Triple Eight was a trailblazing group of heroes who had been the one all-Black, Girls Army Corps Battalion to serve abroad throughout World Warfare II,” mentioned Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore, who sponsored the invoice after being contacted by the daughter of 6888th member Anna Mae Robertson.
“Dealing with each racism and sexism in a warzone, these ladies sorted tens of millions of items of mail, closing huge mail backlogs, and making certain service members obtained letters from their family members,” she continued. “A Congressional Gold Medal is just becoming for these veterans who obtained little recognition for his or her service after returning dwelling.”
The U.S. Home of Representatives additionally voted Monday evening to the 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 navy 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 submit 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 ladies serving within the navy.”
The Related Press contributed to this text.
