Page 6 - Black History Month 2021 - Combined Special Edition of Luke AFB Thunderbolt — Davis Monthan AFB Desert Lightning News

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National Archives photo
Women’s Army Corps Maj. Charity Adams, 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion commander, and Army Capt. Abbie Noel Campbell, 6888th CPD executive officer,
inspect the first soldiers from the unit to arrive in England, Feb. 15, 1945. The only all-African-American Women’s Army Corps unit sent to Europe during World War II,
the 6888th was responsible for clearing years’ worth of backlogged mail in both England and France.

a few days when that first group of called. “There were very many military First in Europe waiting for one slip in our good conduct
African-American WACs refused to eat. personnel roaming around the station The two women were literally the or performance.”
And in one of her assignments, Adams … so the MPs were constantly moving rst Black WACs in Europe and, techni- “One day I came home from work …
worked in an all-white of ce. throughout the crowd. … Two white MPs cally, they weren’t supposed to be there. and the girls said … ‘Your name’s on
That’s not to say the women didn’t … addressed me,” she wrote. Although Black Army nurses served in the board,’” remembered Staff Sgt. Es-
encounter blatant racism. Travel, espe- “’Some people have — there was a combat zones, when African-Americans sie O’Bryant. “There was a list of girls
cially throughout the south, could be es- question —’ had rst been allowed to join the WAC, selected to go overseas. … I went in to
pecially humiliating. “The incident that “’Yes, I see. You want to know if I really it had been with the proviso that they my commanding of cer … and she said,
I’ll never forget is when there were four am a major in the U.S. Army. … Names? I could never serve overseas. It only hap- ‘I selected the girls that I would like to go
of us having to change trains,” remem- can see your rank. Your serial numbers? pened because of the “needs of the Army,” overseas with me.’ … It was an honor for
bered WAC Staff Sgt. Evelyn Martin. “I Your unit? Location? The name of your Bonnell said. her to think that much of me.”
was informed by a train conductor, we commanding officer?’” Adams asked, “That’s how we oftentimes see policies Overwhelming Task
— and he used the N-word — could not advising the men to report themselves and progress. … After the D-Day invasion After long, fraught journeys across the
ride the train. I kept my composure, and before she had the chance. They learned … the mail very quickly became backed Atlantic that involved shadowing by Ger-
I said, ‘We have to ride it. The military a lesson, she wrote, adding that another up. … There was also a push by African- man U-boats and a V-1 “buzz” bomb that
has to know where we are.’ In order to MP refused to question her when con- American groups to try to force the War landed just as some of them disembarked
ride that train, the of cer of the day … fronted by a suspicious passenger. Department to allow and to actually in Scotland, the soldiers of the 6888th
and an MP and the conductor — they Those reactions were harbingers of the create requisitions for African-American arrived in Birmingham, England, in Feb-
found a piece of wrapping paper and surprise and hostility she and her execu- WACs in the European Theater. … Even- ruary 1945.
some cord and separated us from the tive of cer, Capt. Abbie Noel Campbell, tually, based on this need, a requisition They were stationed at an old school
white passengers.” encountered when they ew to Europe was sent out for 800 women,” she said. and it must have been a dismal prospect.
Adams tells similar stories, and as she in January 1945 in advance of their bat- Many of the women were hand-picked. Mattresses were made from straw; show-
rose through the ranks, her very uniform talion. They were, she wrote, “among U.S. They were blazing a trail and they were ers were in the courtyard and heat was
started to raise questions: “I was wait- military personnel who could not believe expected to excel. They had to be, as almost nonexistent. In a large warehouse,
ing with my parents in the small, dirty, Negro WAC of cers were real. Salutes Adams told her troops, “the best WAC
and crowded ‘colored’ waiting room in were slow in coming and, frequently, unit ever sent into a foreign theater. … __________
the Atlanta railroad station,” she re- returned with great reluctance.” The eyes of the public would be upon us, See MAIL, on Page 12