Eighty years after the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion deployed to Europe during World War II, its soldiers were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Nicknamed the Six Triple Eight, the unit was the first and largest all-female, all-African American unit to deploy overseas during World War II. On April 29, with the two surviving members watching online, over 300 of the soldiers’ descendants and family members gathered on Capitol Hill for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal.

“On behalf of the friends and families and all of those connected with the Six Triple Eight, I wish to give my most sincere thanks to the Congress of the United States for this great honor to the women of the battalion,” Stanley Earley III, son of Six Triple Eight commander Lt. Col. Charity Adams-Earley, said during the ceremony. “Please help us to ensure that the story of the Six Triple Eight and the honors and the recognition that they receive are protected and remembered for future generations.”  

With about 7 million service members and other personnel stationed across the European theater during World War II, the battalion processed 17 million pieces of mail in Birmingham, England, to correct a mounting mail backlog and went on to continue their mission in Rouen, France, according to a Defense Department news release.

The Association of the U.S. Army supported the “Six Triple Eight” Congressional Gold Medal Act, which was signed into law in March 2022, and previous versions of the legislation. In 2019, AUSA and The ROCKS, Inc., partnered to send a letter to Congress supporting the award.

“The Six Triple Eight operated under the challenges of ‘dual segregation’ by race and gender,” the letter states. “Through conducting 24/7 operations in England, they cleared more than 17 million pieces of mail and package backlog in three months; well under the Army’s six-month time estimate.”

The Congressional Gold Medal is the “highest expression of national appreciation,” and it is given “for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions,” according to a Senate website.

The award for the Six Triple Eight honors the women of the battalion for their pioneering service, devotion to duty and contributions to increase the morale of service members serving in the European theater during World War II.

Ensuring mail got to the correct recipient was no easy task, Adams-Earley wrote in her memoir.

“With over seven million persons in the files, there were thousands of name duplications,” she wrote. “At one point we knew we had more than 7,500 Robert Smiths. Had it not been for serial numbers, we would never have been able to distinguish one from the other. … This same problem applied to thousands of other given names.”

The soldiers of the Six Triple Eight lived by their motto of “No mail, low morale.”

“They supplied us with files, the names of men who were enlisted in the Army in the European Theater,” Pfc. Dorothy Turner said in an Army news article. “You could see the last time that this man got mail, and ... you had this pile of mail that he should have gotten over the years and packages. … You knew that he had not gotten any news from his family or friends … and you were determined to try to find him."