(This article first appeared in the April print edition of the Hendersonian.)
A Henderson woman will be one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of descendants of soldiers who served in the U.S. Army 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion to be honored in a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in Washington, D.C., at the end of April.
Debra McGuire will attend the ceremony with her brother James and his family in recognition of their mother, Pvt. Grant Esther Marshall Thomas, also a Hendersonian, who served in the 6888th battalion at the end of World War II.
The battalion is credited with organizing a system, sorting and then getting a backlog of some 17 million pieces of mail delivered in the last year of World War II.
The battalion’s credo: “No mail, low morale.”
Although McGuire knew her mother had served in the Army, she said she was not fully aware of all that she did during the war. In fact, McGuire was surprised to learn that her mother had gone overseas to serve in the war.
“She didn’t talk much about it,” McGuire said about her mother’s service.
When Thomas came home, she married another veteran, James Thomas, and they worked and raised a family. Thomas was also heavily active in the Henderson branch of the NAACP, said her daughter.
McGuire said there are many other descendants of soldiers of the 6888th who are just now learning the extent of their mother’s or grandmother’s service in the second world war.
Much of that, she said, can be credited to a list of the soldiers who served in the battalion that is shown at the conclusion of the Tyler Perry film, “The Six Triple Eight,” which was released last year. Some family members, according to McGuire, say they didn’t even know their mother or grandmother served in the Army or, like McGuire, didn’t know they went to Europe until they saw her name on the list at the end of the movie.
McGuire said in her mother’s discharge papers, there was no mention of her role in the war. She said she first began to learn about what she had done after a researcher called her last summer and began to talk to her about her mother.
***
The movie “The Six Triple Eight” depicts the mission of organizing a backlog of letters and then getting them delivered to U.S. soldiers during the end of World War II.
The task given to the to the U.S. Army 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a division of the Women’s Army Corps mostly made up of African American women, was almost impossible. There were reportedly 17 million pieces of mail to sort through, many of which were only addressed to the first name of a soldier. According to one internet site dedicated to the 6888th, the battalion processed 65,000 pieces of mail per shift, running three shifts per day, seven days a week.
In the film, the battalion completes its mission, which was based in England, and morale both at home and on the battlefield improve, helping to win the war. The battalion, after untangling the mail in England and after the war was won, went on to France, where it untangled another backlog of mail there.
In early 1946, the battalion traveled back to the United States, where it was disbanded at Fort Dix, New Jersey. No public ceremony was held.
***
When her mother returned from the war, she married James Thomas and then she got to work, especially in regard to the Black community. According to McGuire, her mother was one of the driving forces in starting the Henderson chapter of the NAACP, working alongside the Rev. Dr. Anthony Brooks.
During the 1950s and 1960s, McGuire said the local NAACP was strong, working to integrate schools and organizing sit-ins at Newberry’s, Ferrell’s, Woolworth’s and Ruby’s.
She was a part of the group that pushed to get the John F. Kennedy Center built, McGuire said. Her mother also headed up the youth branch of the NAACP. And she traveled with the Rev. Austin Bell and others in the NAACP to advocate for civil rights in Henderson and the state, McGuire said.
McGuire was young at the time, and she didn’t know her mother’s background then. But looking back on it now, she said that she believes her mother’s experience with the 6888th, seeing firsthand the organization and work of the battalion, pushed Thomas upon her return to organize and work for her community in her hometown.
Thomas died in 1966 when she was just 47 years old.
***
On April 29, the descendants of the women who served in the 6888th Battalion will be honored in a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony at Emancipation Hall in Washington, D.C. Family members were invited via invitations sent through Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, McGuire said. A reception will follow in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. The next day, the families will gather again for a luncheon.
This comes after former President Joe Biden signed legislation in 2022 awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the 855 members of the Women’s Army Corps who were assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.
McGuire will attend the ceremony with her brother, James, who lives in South Carolina now, and his family, one of which is Laura Thomas, McGuire’s niece. McGuire said Laura, who works in Washington and has ties to the government, has been instrumental in getting this lined up for the family.
McGuire said she wishes that the battalion had been recognized sooner, like right after the war, instead of after most have died.
“I wish they had done it then for them,” she said.
Still, she’s proud of her mother’s accomplishments and the battalion’s completed missions.
“I’m just proud of what she did do,” McGuire said. “I’m proud of what she did and all the rest of them.”
