[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 74 (Thursday, April 29, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S2385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
``SIX TRIPLE EIGHT'' CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL ACT OF 2021
Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from
further consideration of S. 321 and the Senate proceed to its immediate
consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the bill by title.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 321) 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''.
There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the
Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. KAINE. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a
third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made
and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (S. 321) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading,
was read the third time, and passed as follows
S. 321
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.
____________________