It was 855 black women who made up the U.S. Army’s 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion during World War II. Commonly known as “The Six Triple Eight,” this battalion was the only all-African American, all-female unit to serve overseas during the war.
The women had a one-year assignment to organize and ship over 17 million pieces of mail to American soldiers in Europe. They did it in six months.
And their story started at the Third Army Women’s Army Corps Training Center in Fort Oglethorpe.
On Thursday, Feb. 13, the documentary “The Six Triple Eight” will share their story in a free screening at 3 p.m. in the University of Tennessee’s University Center Auditorium in Chattanooga. There will also be a Q&A with producers James W. Theres and Edna Cummings, National Park Service interpretive ranger Brian Autry, and Beverly Foster, president of the Walker County African American Historical and Alumni Association.
Following their two-week training in Georgia, this group of women from across the country was shipped off to Birmingham, England, where the mail waited. The women worked 24 hours a day, usually in triple shifts, to clear the backlog of letters.