S. 321 

One Hundred Seventeenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty two 

An Act 

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Women’s Army 

Corps who were assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known 

as the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ ‘Six Triple Eight’ Congressional 

Gold Medal Act of 2021’’. 

SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

Congress finds the following: 

(1) On July 1, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 

into law legislation that established the Women’s Army Corps 

(referred to in this section as the ‘‘WAC’’) as a component 

in the Army. The WAC was converted from the Women’s Army 

Auxiliary Corps (referred to in this section as the ‘‘WAAC’’), 

which had been created in 1942 without official military status. 

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, the 

founder of the National Council of Negro Women, advocated 

for the admittance of African-American women into the newly 

formed WAC to serve as officers and enlisted personnel. 

(2) Dubbed ‘‘10 percenters’’, the recruitment of AfricanAmerican women to the WAAC was limited to 10 percent of 

the population of the WAAC to match the proportion of AfricanAmericans in the national population. Despite an Executive 

order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 banning racial discrimination in civilian defense industries, the 

Armed Forces remained segregated. Enlisted women served 

in segregated units, participated in segregated training, lived 

in separate quarters, ate at separate tables in mess halls, 

and used segregated recreational facilities. Officers received 

their officer candidate training in integrated units but lived 

under segregated conditions. Specialist and technical training 

schools were integrated in 1943. During World War II, a total 

of 6,520 African-American women served in the WAAC and 

the WAC. 

(3) After several units of White women were sent to serve 

in the European Theater of Operations (referred to in this 

section as the ‘‘ETO’’) during World War II, African-American 

organizations advocated for the War Department to extend 

the opportunity to serve overseas to African-American WAC 

units. 
S. 321—2 

(4) In November 1944, the War Department approved 

sending African-American women to serve in Europe. A battalion of all African-American women drawn from the WAC, 

the Army Service Forces, and the Army Air Forces was created 

and designated as the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (referred to in this section as the ‘‘6888th’’), which was 

nicknamed the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’. 

(5) Army officials reported a shortage of qualified postal 

officers within the ETO, which resulted in a backlog of undelivered mail. As Allied forces drove across Europe, the everchanging locations of servicemembers hampered the delivery 

of mail to those servicemembers. Because 7,000,000 civilians 

and military personnel from the United States served in the 

ETO, many of those individuals had identical names. For 

example, 7,500 such individuals were named Robert Smith. 

One general predicted that the backlog in Birmingham, England, would take 6 months to process and the lack of reliable 

mail service was hurting morale. 

(6) In February 1945, the 6888th arrived in Birmingham. 

Upon their arrival, the 6888th found warehouses filled with 

millions of pieces of mail intended for members of the Armed 

Forces, United States Government personnel, and Red Cross 

workers serving in the ETO. 

(7) The 6888th created effective processes and filing systems to track individual servicemembers, organize ‘‘undeliverable’’ mail, determine the intended recipient for insufficiently 

addressed mail, and handle mail addressed to servicemembers 

who had died. Adhering to their motto of ‘‘No mail, low morale’’, 

the women processed an average of 65,000 pieces of mail per 

shift and cleared the 6-month backlog of mail within 3 months. 

(8) The 6888th traveled to Rouen, France, in May 1945 

and worked through a separate backlog of undelivered mail 

dating back as far as 3 years. 

(9) At the completion of their mission, the unit returned 

to the United States. The 6888th was discontinued on March 

9, 1946, at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. 

(10) The accomplishments of the 6888th in Europe encouraged the General Board, United States Forces, European Theater of Operations to adopt the following premise in their 

study of the WAC issued in December 1945: ‘‘[T]he national 

security program is the joint responsibility of all Americans 

irrespective of color or sex’’ and ‘‘the continued use of colored, 

along with white, female military personnel is required in such 

strength as is proportionately appropriate to the relative population distribution between colored and white races’’. 

(11) With the exception of smaller units of African-American nurses who served in Africa, Australia, and England, 

the 6888th was the only African-American Women’s Army 

Corps unit to serve overseas during World War II. 

(12) The members of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ received the 

European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the 

Women’s Army Corps Service Medal, and the World War II 

Victory Medal for their service. 

(13) In 2019, the Army awarded the 6888th the Meritorious 

Unit Commendation. 
S. 321—3 

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

(a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall 

make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design in honor of 

the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (commonly known as the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’) in recognition of— 

(1) the pioneering military service of those women; 

(2) the devotion to duty of those women; and 

(3) the contributions made by those women to increase 

the morale of all United States personnel stationed in the 

European Theater of Operations during World War II. 

(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purposes of the award 

described in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred 

to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike the gold medal with 

suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by 

the Secretary. 

(c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 

(1) IN GENERAL.—After the award of the gold medal under 

subsection (a), the medal shall be given to the Smithsonian 

Institution, where the medal shall be available for display, 

as appropriate, and made available for research. 

(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress that 

the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal 

received under paragraph (1) available elsewhere, particularly 

at— 

(A) appropriate locations associated with the 6888th 

Central Postal Directory Battalion; 

(B) the Women in Military Service for America Memorial; 

(C) the United States Army Women’s Museum; 

(D) the National World War II Museum and Memorial; 

(E) the National Museum of the United States Army; 

and 

(F) any other location determined appropriate by the 

Smithsonian Institution. 

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the 

Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 

medal struck under section 3 at a price sufficient to cover the 

costs of the medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of 

machinery, and overhead expenses. 

SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS. 

(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—Medals struck under this Act are 

national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United 

States Code. 

(b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 5134 of title 

31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall 

be considered to be numismatic items. 

SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE. 

(a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There is authorized 

to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise 

Fund such amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs 

of the medals struck under this Act. 
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(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the sale of 

duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.