‘Six Triple Eight’ Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1012 To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Women’s Army Corps who were assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 11, 2021 Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin (for herself, Mr. LATURNER, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. VEASEY, Mrs. AXNE, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. TRONE, Mr. LIEU, Mr. POCAN, Mr. COHEN, Mr. SABLAN, Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. COLE, Mr. EVANS, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Mrs. BUSTOS, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. CARSON, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. NORTON, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. COOPER, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. BEYER, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. COSTA, Mr. PASCRELL, Ms. WILD, Mr. NOR- CROSS, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Ms. BASS, Mr. KIND, Mr. VICENTE GONZALEZ of Texas, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. TONKO, Mrs. DEMINGS, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. WELCH, Mr. STANTON, and Mr. JONES) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subsequently de- termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Women’s Army Corps who were assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’. VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1012 IH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ ‘Six Triple Eight’ Con- 4 gressional Gold Medal Act of 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 (1) On July 1, 1943, President Franklin D. 8 Roosevelt signed into law legislation that established 9 the Women’s Army Corps (referred to in this section 10 as the ‘‘WAC’’) as a component in the Army. The 11 WAC was converted from the Women’s Army Auxil- 12 iary Corps (referred to in this section as the 13 ‘‘WAAC’’), which had been created in 1942 without 14 official military status. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt 15 and Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of the Na- 16 tional Council of Negro Women, advocated for the 17 admittance of African-American women into the 18 newly formed WAC to serve as officers and enlisted 19 personnel. 20 (2) Dubbed ‘‘10 percenters’’, the recruitment of 21 African-American women to the WAAC was limited 22 to 10 percent of the population of the WAAC to 23 match the proportion of African Americans in the 24 national population. Despite an Executive order 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1012 IH issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 1 banning racial discrimination in civilian defense in- 2 dustries, the Armed Forces remained segregated. 3 Enlisted women served in segregated units, partici- 4 pated in segregated training, lived in separate quar- 5 ters, ate at separate tables in mess halls, and used 6 segregated recreational facilities. Officers received 7 their officer candidate training in integrated units 8 but lived under segregated conditions. Specialist and 9 technical training schools were integrated in 1943. 10 During World War II, a total of 6,520 African- 11 American women served in the WAAC and the 12 WAC. 13 (3) After several units of White women were 14 sent to serve in the European Theater of Operations 15 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘ETO’’) during 16 World War II, African-American organizations advo- 17 cated for the War Department to extend the oppor- 18 tunity to serve overseas to African-American WAC 19 units. 20 (4) In November 1944, the War Department 21 approved sending African-American women to serve 22 in Europe. A battalion of all African-American 23 women drawn from the WAC, the Army Service 24 Forces, and the Army Air Forces was created and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1012 IH designated as the 6888th Central Postal Directory 1 Battalion (referred to in this section as the 2 ‘‘6888th’’), which was nicknamed the ‘‘Six Triple 3 Eight’’. 4 (5) Army officials reported a shortage of quali- 5 fied postal officers within the ETO, which resulted 6 in a backlog of undelivered mail. As Allied forces 7 drove across Europe, the ever-changing locations of 8 servicemembers hampered the delivery of mail to 9 those servicemembers. Because 7,000,000 civilians 10 and military personnel from the United States 11 served in the ETO, many of those individuals had 12 identical names. For example, 7,500 such individuals 13 were named Robert Smith. One general predicted 14 that the backlog in Birmingham, England, would 15 take 6 months to process and the lack of reliable 16 mail service was hurting morale. 17 (6) In February 1945, the 6888th arrived in 18 Birmingham. Upon their arrival, the 6888th found 19 warehouses filled with millions of pieces of mail in- 20 tended for members of the Armed Forces, United 21 States Government personnel, and Red Cross work- 22 ers serving in the ETO. 23 (7) The 6888th created effective processes and 24 filing systems to track individual servicemembers, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1012 IH organize ‘‘undeliverable’’ mail, determine the in- 1 tended recipient for insufficiently addressed mail, 2 and handle mail addressed to servicemembers who 3 had died. Adhering to their motto of ‘‘No mail, low 4 morale’’, the women processed an average of 65,000 5 pieces of mail per shift and cleared the 6-month 6 backlog of mail within 3 months. 7 (8) The 6888th traveled to Rouen, France in 8 May 1945 and worked through a separate backlog of 9 undelivered mail dating back as far as 3 years. 10 (9) At the completion of their mission, the unit 11 returned to the United States. The 6888th was dis- 12 continued on March 9, 1946, at Camp Kilmer, New 13 Jersey. 14 (10) The accomplishments of the 6888th in Eu- 15 rope encouraged the General Board, United States 16 Forces, European Theater of Operations to adopt 17 the following premise in their study of the WAC 18 issued in December 1945: ‘‘[T]he national security 19 program is the joint responsibility of all Americans 20 irrespective of color or sex’’ and ‘‘the continued use 21 of colored, along with white, female military per- 22 sonnel is required in such strength as is proportion- 23 ately appropriate to the relative population distribu- 24 tion between colored and white races’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1012 IH (11) With the exception of smaller units of Af- 1 rican-American nurses who served in Africa, Aus- 2 tralia, and England, the 6888th was the only Afri- 3 can-American Women’s Army Corps unit to serve 4 overseas during World War II. 5 (12) The members of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ re- 6 ceived the European African Middle Eastern Cam- 7 paign Medal, the Women’s Army Corps Service 8 Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal for 9 their service. 10 (13) In 2019, the Army awarded the 6888th 11 the Meritorious Unit Commendation. 12 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 13 (a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 14 House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 15 of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 16 award, on behalf of Congress, of a single gold medal of 17 appropriate design in honor of the women of the 6888th 18 Central Postal Directory Battalion (commonly known as 19 the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’) in recognition of— 20 (1) the pioneering military service of those 21 women; 22 (2) the devotion to duty of those women; and 23 (3) the contributions made by those women to 24 increase the morale of all United States personnel 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1012 IH stationed in the European Theater of Operations 1 during World War II. 2 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purposes of the 3 award described in subsection (a), the Secretary of the 4 Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 5 strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 6 inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 7 (c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 8 (1) IN GENERAL.—After the award of the gold 9 medal under subsection (a), the medal shall be given 10 to the Smithsonian Institution, where the medal 11 shall be available for display, as appropriate, and 12 made available for research. 13 (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 14 Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should 15 make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 16 available elsewhere, particularly at— 17 (A) appropriate locations associated with 18 the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion; 19 (B) the Women in Military Service for 20 America Memorial; 21 (C) the United States Army Women’s Mu- 22 seum; 23 (D) the National World War II Museum 24 and Memorial; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 1012 IH (E) the National Museum of the United 1 States Army; and 2 (F) any other location determined appro- 3 priate by the Smithsonian Institution. 4 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 5 Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre- 6 scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 7 bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 at a price 8 sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, 9 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 10 SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS. 11 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—Medals struck under this 12 Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 13 31, United States Code. 14 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 15 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 16 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 17 SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 18 SALE. 19 (a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There is 20 authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 21 Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec- 22 essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under 23 this Act. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 1012 IH (b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 1 sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 2 4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 3 Enterprise Fund. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:15 Mar 08, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1012.IH H1012 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS