[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 321 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.321
One Hundred Seventeenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
the third day of January, two thousand and twenty two
An Act
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''.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ```Six Triple Eight' Congressional
Gold Medal Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) On July 1, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed
into law legislation that established the Women's Army Corps
(referred to in this section as the ``WAC'') as a component in the
Army. The WAC was converted from the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
(referred to in this section as the ``WAAC''), which had been
created in 1942 without official military status. First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of the
National Council of Negro Women, advocated for the admittance of
African-American women into the newly formed WAC to serve as
officers and enlisted personnel.
(2) Dubbed ``10 percenters'', the recruitment of African-
American women to the WAAC was limited to 10 percent of the
population of the WAAC to match the proportion of African-Americans
in the national population. Despite an Executive order issued by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 banning racial
discrimination in civilian defense industries, the Armed Forces
remained segregated. Enlisted women served in segregated units,
participated in segregated training, lived in separate quarters,
ate at separate tables in mess halls, and used segregated
recreational facilities. Officers received their officer candidate
training in integrated units but lived under segregated conditions.
Specialist and technical training schools were integrated in 1943.
During World War II, a total of 6,520 African-American women served
in the WAAC and the WAC.
(3) After several units of White women were sent to serve in
the European Theater of Operations (referred to in this section as
the ``ETO'') during World War II, African-American organizations
advocated for the War Department to extend the opportunity to serve
overseas to African-American WAC units.
(4) In November 1944, the War Department approved sending
African-American women to serve in Europe. A battalion of all
African-American women drawn from the WAC, the Army Service Forces,
and the Army Air Forces was created and designated as the 6888th
Central Postal Directory Battalion (referred to in this section as
the ``6888th''), which was nicknamed the ``Six Triple Eight''.
(5) Army officials reported a shortage of qualified postal
officers within the ETO, which resulted in a backlog of undelivered
mail. As Allied forces drove across Europe, the ever-changing
locations of servicemembers hampered the delivery of mail to those
servicemembers. Because 7,000,000 civilians and military personnel
from the United States served in the ETO, many of those individuals
had identical names. For example, 7,500 such individuals were named
Robert Smith. One general predicted that the backlog in Birmingham,
England, would take 6 months to process and the lack of reliable
mail service was hurting morale.
(6) In February 1945, the 6888th arrived in Birmingham. Upon
their arrival, the 6888th found warehouses filled with millions of
pieces of mail intended for members of the Armed Forces, United
States Government personnel, and Red Cross workers serving in the
ETO.
(7) The 6888th created effective processes and filing systems
to track individual servicemembers, organize ``undeliverable''
mail, determine the intended recipient for insufficiently addressed
mail, and handle mail addressed to servicemembers who had died.
Adhering to their motto of ``No mail, low morale'', the women
processed an average of 65,000 pieces of mail per shift and cleared
the 6-month backlog of mail within 3 months.
(8) The 6888th traveled to Rouen, France, in May 1945 and
worked through a separate backlog of undelivered mail dating back
as far as 3 years.
(9) At the completion of their mission, the unit returned to
the United States. The 6888th was discontinued on March 9, 1946, at
Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.
(10) The accomplishments of the 6888th in Europe encouraged the
General Board, United States Forces, European Theater of Operations
to adopt the following premise in their study of the WAC issued in
December 1945: ``[T]he national security program is the joint
responsibility of all Americans irrespective of color or sex'' and
``the continued use of colored, along with white, female military
personnel is required in such strength as is proportionately
appropriate to the relative population distribution between colored
and white races''.
(11) With the exception of smaller units of African-American
nurses who served in Africa, Australia, and England, the 6888th was
the only African-American Women's Army Corps unit to serve overseas
during World War II.
(12) The members of the ``Six Triple Eight'' received the
European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the Women's Army
Corps Service Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal for their
service.
(13) In 2019, the Army awarded the 6888th the Meritorious Unit
Commendation.
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Award Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of Representatives
and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate
arrangements for the award, on behalf of Congress, of a single gold
medal of appropriate design in honor of the women of the 6888th Central
Postal Directory Battalion (commonly known as the ``Six Triple Eight'')
in recognition of--
(1) the pioneering military service of those women;
(2) the devotion to duty of those women; and
(3) the contributions made by those women to increase the
morale of all United States personnel stationed in the European
Theater of Operations during World War II.
(b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award described
in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in this
Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike the gold medal with suitable
emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
(c) Smithsonian Institution.--
(1) In general.--After the award of the gold medal under
subsection (a), the medal shall be given to the Smithsonian
Institution, where the medal shall be available for display, as
appropriate, and made available for research.
(2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the
Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal received under
paragraph (1) available elsewhere, particularly at--
(A) appropriate locations associated with the 6888th
Central Postal Directory Battalion;
(B) the Women in Military Service for America Memorial;
(C) the United States Army Women's Museum;
(D) the National World War II Museum and Memorial;
(E) the National Museum of the United States Army; and
(F) any other location determined appropriate by the
Smithsonian Institution.
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal
struck under section 3 at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the
medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses.
SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS.
(a) National Medals.--Medals struck under this Act are national
medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
(b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31,
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such
amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck
under this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate
bronze medals authorized under section 4 shall be deposited into the
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.