Was the Six Triple Eight Actual? All In regards to the Historical past-Making Military Unittheinsiderinsight

Tyler Perry is spotlighting a lesser-known piece of World Conflict II historical past in his new Netflix movie, The Six Triple Eight.

Primarily based on a WWII History Magazine article by Kevin M. Hymel, the movie, out Dec. 20, was written and produced by Perry and stars Kerry Washington as Lt. Col. Charity Adams. She was the commanding officer of the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion, the one unit made up of Black girls within the Girls’s Military Corps despatched to Europe throughout World Conflict II.

The Six Triple Eight, because the battalion was nicknamed, was tasked with sorting by 17 million items of undelivered mail in Europe and making certain it was delivered to U.S. troopers. On the time, letters have been the one approach for troopers to speak with their households, and the 6888th’s motto turned “no mail, low morale.”

Although they got six months to finish their job, the battalion sorted the parcels in half that point —simply 90 days. The 855 girls within the unit “needed to struggle for her nation and needed to be of service,” Perry informed PEOPLE in 2024.

“These girls have been extremely essential to the conflict efforts towards the winding down of the conflict,” he mentioned. “It is essential that most of these tales have their voice and their place, as a result of so many people try to erase and write out the historical past of the contributions of sure individuals.”

Along with Washington, the ensemble forged contains Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Sarah Jeffery, Susan Sarandon, Dean Norris, Sam Waterson and Oprah Winfrey, amongst others.

Right here is every little thing to learn about the true occasions that impressed the Tyler Perry movie The Six Triple Eight.

What was the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion?

Throughout World Conflict II, the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion — nicknamed the Six Triple Eight — was the primary and solely unit of colour within the Girls’s Military Corps (WAC) stationed in Europe.

The battalion was led by Charity Adams, the primary Black girl to be commissioned into the WAC. She acquired her mission order to deploy to Europe in late 1944, and the 6888th’s 855 members have been deployed abroad in February 1945.

The unit was an essential hyperlink connecting American troopers and their households again residence.

“Women, we’ve got been ordered to offer hope,” Washington says as Adams in The Six Triple Eight. “The troopers haven’t heard from their family members, and their family members haven’t heard from them.”

Who was Lt. Col. Charity Adams?

Kerry Washington portrays Lt. Col. Charity Adams within the Netflix movie.

The true-life chief was born in Kittrell, N.C., on Dec. 5, 1918, and raised in Columbia, S.C. She was valedictorian of Booker T. Washington Excessive College and attended Wilberforce College in Ohio, the place she majored in arithmetic, Latin and physics.

She taught math and science in Columbia earlier than becoming a member of the Girls’s Auxiliary Military Corps (WAAC) in 1942 (“auxiliary” was later faraway from the title). She attended the first-ever African American Officer Candidate College at Fort Des Moines in Iowa and was promoted to main in 1943, turning into the highest-ranking feminine officer. She then led the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion on their European mission in 1945.

Adams married Stanley A. Earley Jr. in 1949, and the couple had two kids, son Stanley Earley III and daughter Judith Earley. She died at age 83 on Jan. 13, 2002.

Who was Corporal Lena Derriecott King?

Within the Netflix movie, Corporal Lena Derriecott King is portrayed by Ebony Obsidian.

Born on Jan. 27, 1923, in Washington, Ga., King was an solely little one. After her mother and father divorced, she lived along with her mom and aunt in Philadelphia, the place she graduated from Germantown Excessive College. She enlisted within the Military Air Power at 18 and began active-duty service in 1943.

King’s first task was as a nurse at Douglas Military Airfield in Arizona, the place she met her husband, Hugh Thadius Bell, on the publish change. Quickly after, she signed up for abroad obligation and have become one of many 855 girls within the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion.

Whereas researching his movie, Perry made it his mission to fulfill with the residing members of the Six Triple Eight. Whereas visiting King, then 99, at her residence in Las Vegas, he discovered his strategy to crafting The Six Triple Eight.

“After one few-hour session along with her I had a complete script in my head,” he informed PEOPLE.

King died on Jan. 18, 2024, on the age of 100. Obsidian was honored to spend the day along with her real-life counterpart in Vegas on King’s one centesimal birthday.

What was the Six Triple Eight’s essential job?

En path to Europe, Adams discovered she would lead an all-Black, all-female unit and what their mission was: to kind by a two-year backlog of 17 million items of undelivered mail to U.S. troopers.

After arriving in Scotland on Feb. 12, 1945, the battalion was deployed to England, the place the mail was positioned in stuffed-to-the-brim warehouses in Birmingham. On March 12, the ladies formally turned the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion. Their job was to get the parcels organized, redirected and delivered in six months.

“They didn’t ship us as a result of they thought we might do it,” Washington says as Adams within the movie. “We’re right here as a result of they’re certain we can’t.”

The 6888th’s motto was “no mail, low morale,” and Perry informed PEOPLE that mirrored their mission to convey “communications to exhausted troopers of each race of our nation who have been preventing.”

CPL King knew their job was essential.

“One factor individuals within the service seemed ahead to was mail, understanding any individual was nonetheless fascinated with them,” she informed WWII Historical past Journal in 2019. “Within the navy, mail name (when troopers gathered round a delegated mailman as he referred to as out their names for letters or packages) is an important time.”

How lengthy did the Six Triple Eight’s mission take?

The ladies of the Six Triple Eight far exceeded expectations, finishing their mission in 90 days regardless of being given twice that quantity to get the job finished. They then moved on to Rouen, France, understanding of a French monastery.

“That was males’s conflict. Girls didn’t belong. However I’ll let you know one thing, there was a bunch of ladies that have been courageous,” 6888th member and veteran Cresencia Garcia informed History Channel’s HistoryTalks in 2023. “I’m pleased with what I did. And I belong.”

How did Lt. Col. Charity Adams lead the Six Triple Eight?

Adams was a transparent chief with a plan who led with the 6888’s motto, “no mail, low morale.” She arrange a system for the ladies to work across the clock in three eight-hour shifts, seven days per week.

In her 1989 autobiography, One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC, Adams estimated that her crew dealt with about 65,000 items of mail every shift.

“It was lengthy and tiring … we had mail nearly stacked to the ceiling,” Elizabeth Bernice Barker Johnson informed the America’s Veteran Center in 2018.

Barker Johnson defined that that they had lists with recipients’ new addresses on them and any outdated addresses listed on the backlogged mail needed to be modified to the brand new one. King informed WWII Historical past Journal that readdressing letters “took lots of work. It stored you actually busy, in your toes.”

After her unit’s success, Adams was promoted to lieutenant colonel. At age 27, she turned the highest-ranked Black girl in america Military. The Six Triple Eight additionally opened doorways for future Black girls within the armed forces.

Adams acquired many honors throughout her lifetime and after, together with an elementary faculty in Dayton being named after her. In April 2023, she turned the primary Black girl in U.S. historical past to have an Military fort named in her honor. Previously generally known as Fort Lee, the Virginia fort now honors Adams and retired Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg, the Military’s first Black three-star common.

Throughout a 2023 Zoom name, Romay Davis Robinson, Adams’ motor pool driver within the 6888th, mentioned that Adams “was herself. Her disposition was management.”

What challenges did the Six Triple Eight face?

Whereas abroad, the unit confronted many obstacles, together with racism, sexism, cultural variations and logistical points.

The unit was put in segregated housing within the former King Edwards Boys College, and the ladies used their ingenuity to create their very own facilities like a meals corridor and hair salon.

When Adams boycotted the segregated residing quarters and services and was confronted with racial slurs from the overall who commanded the battalion, her unit supported her. The movie features a real-life second when Adams stood as much as the overall and mentioned, “Over my useless physique.”

As for the mail, not solely was there the sheer quantity to deal with, however a few of the parcels had develop into moldy or eaten by vermin, whereas others had illegible addresses. The ladies needed to kind by all of it in unheated, rat-infested warehouses with poor lighting, because the home windows have been darkened to guard them from German raids.

Then there was the toll of the conflict itself, with bombs and rockets showering England and bombers and fighter aircrafts lining the skies.

“It was exhausting, blackout situations. We had poor lighting, poor heating. We couldn’t let the daylight in as a result of they have been nonetheless preventing and bombing in that space,” King informed CNN in 2023.

The corporal added that Birmingham residents handled the battalion like heroes, which was not the identical welcome they acquired from lots of the White American servicemen. She recalled a time when a dance was thrown and a White soldier got here in and used a racial slur whereas asking her why she was there.

“That was very devastating and really painful to see that the identical countrymen that you simply’re preventing the identical conflict for was the one who disrespected me essentially the most,” King mentioned.

What occurred to the members of the Six Triple Eight?

Adams resigned the yr after the 6888th mission was full and earned her grasp’s diploma from Ohio State College. She started work as a registration officer with the Veterans Administration in Cleveland, earlier than working at faculties in Tennessee and Georgia.

Later in life, she served on the boards of the American Purple Cross, Sinclair Neighborhood Faculty and the Dayton Energy and Gentle Firm. Adams additionally volunteered with the YWCA, Nationwide City League and United Approach and based Dayton’s Black Management Growth Group in 1982.

Like Adams, a number of of the ladies labored for presidency companies after returning residence from Europe. Abbe Campbell was a nutritionist on the Tuskegee VA Medical Middle in Alabama, Anna Tarryk labored for the VA’s Insurance coverage Division and Evelina Rachel Griffin spent her total profession with the VA.

Most of the girls additionally took benefit of the G.I. Invoice, which supplied a few of the returning WWII troopers with training advantages. Barker Johnson joined the WAC in 1943 and, after serving, returned to high school and later turned a instructor. She died in August 2019 at 100.

King died in early 2024 however did see a tough minimize of Perry’s movie — and he informed PEOPLE that she gave it her approval. She even saluted the actresses on-screen.

“It was a phenomenal second,” Perry mentioned.

There are solely 4 girls out of over 9,000 People buried at Colleville-sur-Mer Normandy American Cemetery in France, and three of them are from the 6888th. Fourteen members of the battalion are interred at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.

Solely two members of the Six Triple Eight have been alive as of December 2024 — Fannie McClendon and Anna Mae Robertson.

How has the Six Triple Eight been honored?

It took a long time, however the girls of the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion have begun to get the popularity they deserve.

In 2016, the Six Triple Eight was inducted into the Military Girls’s Basis’s Corridor of Fame, and the Military awarded the battalion with the Meritorious Unit Commendation in 2019. On Nov. 30, 2018, the unit had a monument devoted to them at Fort Leavenworth.

4 years later, the U.S. Home of Representatives voted unanimously to honor all 855 members of the Six Triple Eight with the Congressional Gold Medal.

In 2019, King, together with the opposite 6888th surviving members, acquired the Audie Murphy Award in the course of the American Valor Awards ceremony, and he or she was an Honor Function Awardee on the World Conflict II Nationwide Museum in New Orleans.

Tribute has additionally been paid to the battalion within the leisure world. Along with Perry’s 2024 Netflix movie, they’ve been immortalized in a musical, Six Triple Eight, a 2024 historic novel by Sheila Williams referred to as No Better Time and plenty of nonfiction books.