History Happy Hour: The Women of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion

By February 1945, the morale of U.S. troops, government, and civilian personnel had severely decline because much-awaited letters and packages were not reaching them. The 6888^th Battalion, nick-named the “Six Triple Eight,” was a unit of African-American service women who broke the military color barrier and braved horrific working conditions in warehouses in England and France to get the mail to its recipients. The service of the invisible heroes of the Six Triple Eight was finally recognized in the 1990s by the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, the U.S. Army Commendation Program, and other institutions. The program begins with film clips from “The Six Triple Eight” directed by James Theres, and continue with a panel discussion with the director, producers Lizz Helm-Frazier and Edna Cummings, and Stanley Earley, the son of battalion commander Major Charity Adams.