WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — An all-female, all-Black women’s Army Corps battalion who cleared out a 17 million-piece backlog of U.S. servicemember mail in World War II will receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Tuesday.

The children of Lt. Col. Charity Earley of Dayton, Ohio, who commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, are scheduled to accept the award on its behalf in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol’s Emancipation Hall.

Earley died in 2002 at age 83. Congress members who sought the medal for the 850-member battalion who expedited delivery of mail and packages to front line soldiers say just two of them are alive today.

“Their motto, ‘no mail, low morale,’ encouraged them as they faced these insurmountable odds,” said a January letter from a group of U.S. Senators that urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to quickly schedule the ceremony. “Those still surviving ought to not wait any longer to receive this long-awaited recognition they rightfully deserve.”

President Joe Biden signed legislation that authorized the medal in 2022. A Netflix movie about the battalion called Six Triple Eight, directed by Tyler Perry, was released last year.

According to the National Archives, members of the battalion split into three shifts, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to clear the mail backlog. They handled more than 65,000 pieces of mail each shift, and were able to clear a backlog in Britain in just three months.

After that, they were sent to France to help with another mail backlog, which they were able to clear up by October, 1945. Members of the 6888th were awarded the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal before the unit in disbanded in 1946.

Legislation to award them Congressional Gold Medal was signed by President Joe Biden in 2022.

U.S. Representatives Mike Turner, a Dayton Republican, and Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat, last year asked the U.S. Postal Service to issue a postage stamp honoring Earley.

Their letter said that after World War II, Earley completed her masters degree in vocational psychology at the Ohio State University, and went on to raise a family with her husband, Stanley A. Earley Jr. in Dayton.

In addition to being a trailblazer in the military, they said she was a dedicated community leader who in 1982 founded the Black Leadership Development Program.

A statement from Beatty described Earley as her “lifelong friend and mentor.”

“These unsung heroes of the 6888th paved the way for female servicemembers for generations to come,” their letter said.

Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

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