The only female unit to serve overseas in World War II is receiving a Congressional Gold Medal on Tuesday, exactly 80 years after pulling off an incredible organizational feat.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — nicknamed the Six Triple Eight — was a predominantly Black, all-female unit that was deployed to Europe towards the end of the war to tackle a burgeoning crisis: a backlog of some 17 million pieces of undelivered mail.
When the women arrived in Birmingham, England, in February 1945, they were greeted by multiple warehouses full of mail addressed to the roughly 7 million American soldiers and government personnel stationed across Europe, many of whom were frustrated because they hadn’t received any letters for months or even years…