Black History Month: The Six Triple Eight Was The First All Black Female Battalion In WWII
The Six Triple Eight were part of the Women’s Army Corps – an organization formed during WWII to fulfill noncombat roles while manpower was strapped. Nearly 150,000 women worked in various positions like switchboard operator, mechanic, chauffeur, cook, typist and administrative clerk.
Their mission was to sort 3 years of backlogged mail for the Allied forces in war torn Europe in an effort to boost morale among soldiers. There were 17 million pieces of mail stored in massive aircraft angers that needed to be sorted and delivered – it was a logistical nightmare for the War Department.
The tedious task was given to the Six Triple Eight as an experiment to determine the value black women brought to the military during a time when it was still segregated. There were stacks and stacks of mail we had to send back indicating deceased.
