‘Six Triple Eight’ Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3138 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 JUNE 5, 2019 Ms. MOORE (for herself, Mr. WATKINS, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. WILD, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. COX of California, Mr. COHEN, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. NORTON, Ms. PLASKETT, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. COLE, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. BROWN of Maryland, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. EVANS, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. RUSH, Ms. TITUS, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mrs. LURIA, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. HAALAND, and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) introduced the fol- lowing 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 determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider- ation 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 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 3138 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 2019’’. 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 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 3138 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 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 3138 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) With the exception of smaller units of Afri- 5 can-American nurses who served in Africa, Aus- 6 tralia, and England, the 6888th was the only Afri- 7 can-American women’s unit to serve overseas during 8 World War II. 9 (6) Army officials reported a shortage of quali- 10 fied postal officers within the ETO, which resulted 11 in a backlog of undelivered mail. As Allied forces 12 drove across Europe, the ever-changing locations of 13 servicemembers hampered the delivery of mail to 14 those servicemembers. One general predicted that 15 the backlog in Birmingham, England, would take 6 16 months to process and the lack of reliable mail serv- 17 ice was hurting morale. 18 (7) In May 1945, the 6888th arrived in Bir- 19 mingham. Upon their arrival, the 6888th found 20 warehouses filled with millions of pieces of mail in- 21 tended for members of the Armed Forces, United 22 States Government personnel, and Red Cross work- 23 ers serving in the ETO. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 3138 IH (8) The 6888th created effective processes and 1 filing systems to track individual servicemembers, 2 organize ‘‘undeliverable’’ mail, determine the in- 3 tended recipient for insufficiently addressed mail, 4 and handle mail addressed to servicemembers who 5 had died. Adhering to their motto of ‘‘No mail, low 6 morale’’, the women processed an average of 65,000 7 pieces of mail per shift and cleared the 6-month 8 backlog of mail within 3 months. 9 (9) The 6888th traveled to Rouen, France, 10 later in May 1945 and worked through a separate 11 backlog of undelivered mail dating back as far as 3 12 years. 13 (10) At the completion of their mission, the en- 14 tire unit returned to the United States. The 6888th 15 was discontinued on March 9, 1946, at Fort Dix, 16 New Jersey. 17 (11) These women faced racism and sexism, 18 and worked in austere conditions, but were able to 19 clear more than 18,000,000 pieces of backlog mail 20 for Americans in the ETO. Three died in France 21 and are buried in Normandy, France, while three 22 others were beaten in a bus station in Kentucky. 23 (12) According to the Department of Defense, 24 during the period between February 1945 and Feb- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 3138 IH ruary 1946, the members of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ 1 ‘‘displayed meritorious service while deployed to 2 England and France’’ and ‘‘conducted combat sup- 3 port operation which impacted the morale and wel- 4 fare of U.S. servicemembers fighting across the Eu- 5 ropean continent’’. 6 (13) The Department of the Army awarded its 7 Meritorious Unit Commendation award to the mem- 8 bers of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ noting that their 9 ‘‘professionalism and dedication are in keeping with 10 the finest tradition of military service and reflect 11 great credit upon themselves, the Women’s Army 12 Corps, and the U.S. Army’’. 13 (14) The accomplishments of the 6888th in Eu- 14 rope encouraged the General Board, United States 15 Forces, European Theater of Operations to adopt 16 the following premise in their study of the WAC 17 issued in December 1945: ‘‘[T]he national security 18 program is the joint responsibility of all Americans 19 irrespective of color or sex’’ and ‘‘the continued use 20 of colored, along with white, female military per- 21 sonnel is required in such strength as is proportion- 22 ately appropriate to the relative population distribu- 23 tion between colored and white races’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 3138 IH (15) The members of the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’ re- 1 ceived the European African Middle Eastern Cam- 2 paign Medal, the Women’s Army Corps Service 3 Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal for 4 their service. 5 (16) While over 850 African-American women 6 from across the United States have been docu- 7 mented to serve overseas with the ‘‘Six Triple 8 Eight’’, only a few are still alive including Anna Mae 9 Wilson Robertson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Delores 10 L. Ruddock of Mt. Rainer, Maryland, Lena 11 Derrieott Bell King of Las Vegas, Nevada, Elizabeth 12 Bernice Barker Johnson of Hickory, North Carolina, 13 Maybelle Rutland Tanner Campbell of Alexandria, 14 Virginia, Fannie Mae McClendon of Arizona, and 15 Indiana Hunt Martin of Maryland. 16 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 17 (a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 18 House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 19 of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 20 award, on behalf of Congress, of a single gold medal of 21 appropriate design in honor of the women of the 6888th 22 Central Postal Directory Battalion (commonly known as 23 the ‘‘Six Triple Eight’’) in recognition of— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 3138 IH (1) the pioneering military service of those 1 women; 2 (2) the devotion to duty of those women; and 3 (3) the contributions made by those women to 4 increase the morale of all United States personnel 5 stationed in the European theater of operations dur- 6 ing World War II. 7 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purposes of the 8 award described in subsection (a), the Secretary of the 9 Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 10 strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 11 inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 12 (c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 13 (1) IN GENERAL.—After the award of the gold 14 medal under subsection (a), the medal shall be given 15 to the Smithsonian Institution, where the medal 16 shall be available for display, as appropriate, and 17 made available for research. 18 (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 19 Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should 20 make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 21 available elsewhere, particularly at— 22 (A) appropriate locations associated with 23 the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •HR 3138 IH (B) the Women in Military Service for 1 America Memorial; 2 (C) the United States Army Women’s Mu- 3 seum; 4 (D) the National World War II Museum 5 and Memorial; and 6 (E) any other location determined appro- 7 priate by the Smithsonian Institution. 8 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 9 Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre- 10 scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 11 bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 at a price 12 sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, 13 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 14 SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS. 15 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—Medals struck under this 16 Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 17 31, United States Code. 18 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 19 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 20 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3138.IH H3138 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS