By Fletcher Word
The Truth Editor
State Rep. Erika White (D-Springfield Township) has successfully passed her first piece of legislation … and it’s a doozy. On Monday, March 9, White hosted an event at the Lucas County Veterans Service Commission to celebrate the first 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion Day and to honor groups and individuals who have been so important to the military veterans of Lucas County.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion Day is a result of White’s sponsorship, along with co-sponsor Melanie Miller (R-Ashland), of House Bill 204, and the subsequent passage of Senate Bill 17, to honor the 855 women of the only Black women’s Army Battalion to serve overseas during World War II.
The 6888th arrived in England under the command of Major Charity Adams, during the last year of the war to literally sort out the disastrous mail situation that had prevented servicemen from receiving mail from their loved ones stateside. The 6888th found themselves with the assignment of dealing with 17 million pieces of mail in the backlog – a backlog that their Army superiors had estimated would take six months to sort out and have delivered. The 6888th accomplished the task in less than three months.
Then they were dispatched to France after V-E Day, first Rouen and then Paris, to sort and distribute mail, some of it was a three-year backlog of letters. They completed that task also in a remarkably short amount of time.
The last members of the 6888th returned home by February 1946 to no fanfare and no recognition of their service. Their contributions to the war effort remained largely unnoticed until 2009 when the battalion was honored at the Women in Military Service of America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 2021, the U.S. Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Women’s Army Corps who were assigned to the 6888th.
Rep. White’s legislation was particularly apt given that Major Charity Adams (later Charity Adams Early) spent most of her post war life in Ohio, attending Wilberforce University and earning a masters degree from the Ohio State University. She settled in Dayton in the early 1950s with her husband Stanley Early, a physician.
On Monday, March 9, Rep. White and guests celebrated the inaugural Central Postal Directory Battalion Day at the Lucas County Veterans Service Commission with a program that included remarks by State Representative Meredith Lawson (D-Reynoldsburg); remarks by retired Staff Sergeant and author Renata Morgan along with the presentation of commendations by Rep. White to three area groups or individuals that have been crucial to bringing assistance to veterans.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Rep. Lawson of White’s successful effort to pass the legislation. Lawson, ranking member of the Ohio House Veterans and Military Development Committee, spoke of the achievements of the 6888th during WWII and the way they solved the problem of the mail delivery for service members and their families.
“The task seemed simple enough but is there anything simple that Black women do?” asked Lawson. The millions of pieces of mail that the women of the 6888th had to sort and distribute fell to “overlooked and underestimated women,” she added.
Morgan also lauded the efforts of the 6888th in undertaking and solving such an enormous problem. A former military police officer, Morgan has served in a war zone and was inspired by the story of the 6888th. She spoke of the “unwavering commitment and sacrifice” the women made. Morgan, a Toledoan, served as part of the 6888th cast in Tyler Perry’s 2024 film “The Six Triple Eight.”
“History remained unrecognized for too long,” said Rep. White during her remarks about the significance of the 6888th and the women who served in the battalion. “Patriotism is not measured by who receives recognition at that moment … service matters, sacrifice matters.
White then recognized several local individuals and presented them with proclamations. The honorees were: Rebecca West-Estell, a veteran and attorney; Lisa Canales-Smith, founder of Angels Outreach, and David Oravecz, executive director of the Lucas County Veterans Service Commission.