211656 Janyce Taylor Woman's Army Corp 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion from:Philadelphia, PA Few things are more important to soldiers in wartime than mail from home.
But getting mail from home in wartime can be a logistical nightmare for those who have to collect, sort and deliver it, particularly to combat troops moving rapidly in battle. In World War II, the job fell to a dedicated band of black female soldiers who were members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only black Women's Army Corps unit to serve overseas in the war.One of its proud members was Janyce Stovall, who sneaked away from her Philadelphia home in 1943 as the war was raging to join the WAC.
She was assigned first to Fort Dix, N.J., and then sent to Europe as a member of what the troops called the "Six Triple Eight."
It was somewhat of an exclusive unit, consisting of 855 enlisted African-American women and officers, whose daunting job was to get mail to some 7 million American troops in Europe.
When the 6888th arrived in Birmingham, England, at the height of the war, it was confronted with a formidable stack of undelivered mail, one that reached to the ceiling. Some of it had been waiting two years for delivery to soldiers. The 6888th worked in England and in Rouen, France, to get that mail moving.
Janyce was aware of the responsibility of her segregated unit. "If we had fouled up, it would have been a black mark against black women and women in general," she said in an Inquirer interview in 1998. "But we didn't foul up. We did our job."
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