``Six Triple Eight'' Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021

Floor Speech

I rise in support of S. 321, the ``Six Triple Eight'' Congressional Gold Medal Act.

Mr. Speaker, with our world so interconnected today, we can sometimes forget how big the role of mail played in our daily lives before electronic technology came about. This especially rings true for those who left home to defend our Nation in times of war.

As stated by the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum: ``For members of the Armed Forces, the importance of mail during World War II was second only to food. The emotional power of letters was heightened by the fear of loss and the need for communication during times of separation.''

The importance of morale-boosting letters was well-known back home in the United States, and many answered the call to send letters to the U.S. military fighting in the Great War. However, getting these letters to the Americans on the front lines was an arduous task.

By February 1945, warehouses in Birmingham, England, had a backlog of millions of pieces of mail. This is where the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion forever changed history.

Going back a bit, on July 1, 1943, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law legislation that established the Women's Army Corps, better known as WACs. Early on, this corps consisted of only White women, and even when African-American women were admitted into the WACs, the recruitment was limited to only 10 percent.

Additionally, those who did enlist served in segregated units; they participated in segregated training; and they lived in segregated areas. Despite the overt racism and segregation, a total of 6,520 brave African-American women served in the Women's Army Corps.

In November 1944, despite slow recruitment of volunteers, a battalion of 817--and later, 824--enlisted personnel and 31 officers, all African-American women drawn from the WAC, the Army Service Forces, and the Army Air Forces, was created and eventually designated as the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion.

Upon arriving in Birmingham, the unit got right to work creating effective processes and filing systems to track servicemembers and organize ``undeliverable'' mail. They were so efficient that they cleared a 6-month to a year backlog in only 3 months.

Spurred on by their motto, ``No mail, low morale,'' these brave women cleared an average 65,000 pieces of mail per shift, ensuring that our servicemembers had the ability to hear from loved ones back at home and to sustain the high morale that was needed.

Since World War II, the Six Triple Eight has 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. Today, we should add the Congressional Gold Medal to this distinguished list.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Representative Gwen Moore from Wisconsin, the author of H.R. 1012, for her work to bring recognition to these brave women.

I believe we are in a period of dueling reserves, trying to accommodate colleagues who are en route. But I would elaborate. As a prior enlisted servicemember, never serving in a field of combat, just getting a letter from home when you were away on a deployment, or even from the very moment you went to basic training, in those days, you didn't have cell phones, text messages, emails, instant messages, web chat rooms and all these things, so your lifeline was the postal service.

Frankly, I owe to the mail service that delivered letters to me while I was a cadet at West Point a big part of the courtship that led to me marrying my wife. We dated the whole time we were there. We looked forward to letters. We did have pay phones back then, so you would wait in line for the pay phone that augmented the letters.

It is heroic what these women did, as we think about other things that have changed, thankfully, the period of time where it was looked upon with skepticism that women could serve in our military, or African Americans, men or women, in any other way could serve. The idea that they were segregated in every way through this whole period of history is, I think, shocking to people today.

But this was really a key piece of our history in allowing this transition. So I think it is fitting that they are recognized with the Congressional Gold Medal, and I encourage, once again, all of our colleagues to support this bill.

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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Speaker, I would just conclude by saying yes, I am prepared to close, and I urge all of my colleagues to support S. 321. I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. DAVIDSON. Would the gentleman consider yielding to Mr. LaTurner?

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Mr. DAVIDSON. I do.

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