I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3138 

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’’. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 5, 2019 

Ms. MOORE (for herself, Mr. WATKINS, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. 

GRIJALVA, Ms. WILD, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. 

RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. 

JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. COX of California, Mr. 

COHEN, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. NORTON, Ms. PLASKETT, Ms. 

CLARKE of New York, Mr. COLE, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. 

LYNCH, Mr. BROWN of Maryland, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. 

BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. 

EVANS, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mrs. WATSON

COLEMAN, Mr. RUSH, Ms. TITUS, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mrs. LURIA, 

Mr. ENGEL, Ms. HAALAND, and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, 

and in addition to the Committee on House Administration, for a period 

to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 

concerned 

A BILL 

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’’. 


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1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ ‘Six Triple Eight’ Con5 gressional Gold Medal Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) On July 1, 1943, President Franklin D. 

9 Roosevelt signed into law legislation that established 

10 the Women’s Army Corps (referred to in this section 

11 as the ‘‘WAC’’) as a component in the Army. The 

12 WAC was converted from the Women’s Army Auxil13 iary Corps (referred to in this section as the 

14 ‘‘WAAC’’), which had been created in 1942 without 

15 official military status. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt 

16 and Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of the Na17 tional Council of Negro Women, advocated for the 

18 admittance of African-American women into the 

19 newly formed WAC to serve as officers and enlisted 

20 personnel. 

21 (2) Dubbed ‘‘10 percenters’’, the recruitment of 

22 African-American women to the WAAC was limited 

23 to 10 percent of the population of the WAAC to 

24 match the proportion of African Americans in the 

25 national population. Despite an Executive order 


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1 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 

2 banning racial discrimination in civilian defense in3 dustries, the Armed Forces remained segregated. 

4 Enlisted women served in segregated units, partici5 pated in segregated training, lived in separate quar6 ters, ate at separate tables in mess halls, and used 

7 segregated recreational facilities. Officers received 

8 their officer candidate training in integrated units 

9 but lived under segregated conditions. Specialist and 

10 technical training schools were integrated in 1943. 

11 During World War II, a total of 6,520 African12 American women served in the WAAC and the 

13 WAC. 

14 (3) After several units of White women were 

15 sent to serve in the European theater of operations 

16 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘ETO’’) during 

17 World War II, African-American organizations advo18 cated for the War Department to extend the oppor19 tunity to serve overseas to African-American WAC 

20 units. 

21 (4) In November 1944, the War Department 

22 approved sending African-American women to serve 

23 in Europe. A battalion of all African-American 

24 women drawn from the WAC, the Army Service 

25 Forces, and the Army Air Forces was created and 


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1 designated as the 6888th Central Postal Directory 

2 Battalion (referred to in this section as the 

3 ‘‘6888th’’), which was nicknamed the ‘‘Six Triple 

4 Eight’’. 

5 (5) With the exception of smaller units of Afri6 can-American nurses who served in Africa, Aus7 tralia, and England, the 6888th was the only Afri8 can-American women’s unit to serve overseas during 

9 World War II. 

10 (6) Army officials reported a shortage of quali11 fied postal officers within the ETO, which resulted 

12 in a backlog of undelivered mail. As Allied forces 

13 drove across Europe, the ever-changing locations of 

14 servicemembers hampered the delivery of mail to 

15 those servicemembers. One general predicted that 

16 the backlog in Birmingham, England, would take 6 

17 months to process and the lack of reliable mail serv18 ice was hurting morale. 

19 (7) In May 1945, the 6888th arrived in Bir20 mingham. Upon their arrival, the 6888th found 

21 warehouses filled with millions of pieces of mail in22 tended for members of the Armed Forces, United 

23 States Government personnel, and Red Cross work24 ers serving in the ETO. 


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1 (8) The 6888th created effective processes and 

2 filing systems to track individual servicemembers, 

3 organize ‘‘undeliverable’’ mail, determine the in4 tended recipient for insufficiently addressed mail, 

5 and handle mail addressed to servicemembers who 

6 had died. Adhering to their motto of ‘‘No mail, low 

7 morale’’, the women processed an average of 65,000 

8 pieces of mail per shift and cleared the 6-month 

9 backlog of mail within 3 months. 

10 (9) The 6888th traveled to Rouen, France, 

11 later in May 1945 and worked through a separate 

12 backlog of undelivered mail dating back as far as 3 

13 years. 

14 (10) At the completion of their mission, the en15 tire unit returned to the United States. The 6888th 

16 was discontinued on March 9, 1946, at Fort Dix, 

17 New Jersey. 

18 (11) These women faced racism and sexism, 

19 and worked in austere conditions, but were able to 

20 clear more than 18,000,000 pieces of backlog mail 

21 for Americans in the ETO. Three died in France 

22 and are buried in Normandy, France, while three 

23 others were beaten in a bus station in Kentucky. 

24 (12) According to the Department of Defense, 

25 during the period between February 1945 and FebVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138

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1 ruary 1946, the members of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ 

2 ‘‘displayed meritorious service while deployed to 

3 England and France’’ and ‘‘conducted combat sup4 port operation which impacted the morale and wel5 fare of U.S. servicemembers fighting across the Eu6 ropean continent’’. 

7 (13) The Department of the Army awarded its 

8 Meritorious Unit Commendation award to the mem9 bers of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ noting that their 

10 ‘‘professionalism and dedication are in keeping with 

11 the finest tradition of military service and reflect 

12 great credit upon themselves, the Women’s Army 

13 Corps, and the U.S. Army’’. 

14 (14) The accomplishments of the 6888th in Eu15 rope encouraged the General Board, United States 

16 Forces, European Theater of Operations to adopt 

17 the following premise in their study of the WAC 

18 issued in December 1945: ‘‘[T]he national security 

19 program is the joint responsibility of all Americans 

20 irrespective of color or sex’’ and ‘‘the continued use 

21 of colored, along with white, female military per22 sonnel is required in such strength as is proportion23 ately appropriate to the relative population distribu24 tion between colored and white races’’. 


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1 (15) The members of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ re2 ceived the European African Middle Eastern Cam3 paign Medal, the Women’s Army Corps Service 

4 Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal for 

5 their service. 

6 (16) While over 850 African-American women 

7 from across the United States have been docu8 mented to serve overseas with the ‘‘Six Triple 

9 Eight’’, only a few are still alive including Anna Mae 

10 Wilson Robertson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Delores 

11 L. Ruddock of Mt. Rainer, Maryland, Lena 

12 Derrieott Bell King of Las Vegas, Nevada, Elizabeth 

13 Bernice Barker Johnson of Hickory, North Carolina, 

14 Maybelle Rutland Tanner Campbell of Alexandria, 

15 Virginia, Fannie Mae McClendon of Arizona, and 

16 Indiana Hunt Martin of Maryland. 

17 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

18 (a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 

19 House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 

20 of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 

21 award, on behalf of Congress, of a single gold medal of 

22 appropriate design in honor of the women of the 6888th 

23 Central Postal Directory Battalion (commonly known as 

24 the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’) in recognition of— 


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1 (1) the pioneering military service of those 

2 women; 

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

4 (3) the contributions made by those women to 

5 increase the morale of all United States personnel 

6 stationed in the European theater of operations dur7 ing World War II. 

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

9 award described in subsection (a), the Secretary of the 

10 Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 

11 strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 

12 inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 

13 (c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 

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

15 medal under subsection (a), the medal shall be given 

16 to the Smithsonian Institution, where the medal 

17 shall be available for display, as appropriate, and 

18 made available for research. 

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

20 Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should 

21 make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 

22 available elsewhere, particularly at— 

23 (A) appropriate locations associated with 

24 the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion; 


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1 (B) the Women in Military Service for 

2 America Memorial; 

3 (C) the United States Army Women’s Mu4 seum; 

5 (D) the National World War II Museum 

6 and Memorial; and 

7 (E) any other location determined appro8 priate by the Smithsonian Institution. 

9 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

10 Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre11 scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

12 bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 at a price 

13 sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, 

14 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 

15 SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS. 

16 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—Medals struck under this 

17 Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 

18 31, United States Code. 

19 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 

20 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 

21 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

Æ 


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