By AFRO Workers
Anna Mae Robertson, one of many final recognized surviving members of the famed 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion, died Could 30. She was 101.
Robertson, and all of the 855 members of the “Six Triple Eight,” because the unit is known as, are inspiring a brand new era of Individuals now that their historic contributions and braveness are receiving lengthy overdue recognition. In April, the ladies had been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his or her sacrifice in World Warfare II (WWII). And, late final yr, Tyler Perry’s Netflix movie “The Six Triple Eight,” starring Kerry Washington, shone a worldwide highlight on the trailblazing army veterans.
“It was an unforgettable privilege to kneel beside this elder and thank her for her service, and to speak together with her concerning the movie we’ve made that’s impressed by their bravery, and to hug her and categorical my love and gratitude for her journey,” Washington stated late final yr after assembly Robertson. “The braveness of those girls—going through not solely battle however the deep injustices of their time— is unmatched. Their service was revolutionary, pushed by love of nation and dedication to 1 one other.”
The 6888th was shaped in 1944 after a tough fought marketing campaign by Mary McLeod Bethune and her allies to incorporate Black girls within the Girls’s Military Corps. They turned the primary and solely all-female African American unit deployed abroad throughout WWII, when in 1945 they had been despatched to England to type and distribute backlogged mail meant for U.S. troops, authorities personnel and Crimson Cross employees serving within the European theater.
The duty was a frightening one: increase troop morale by sorting and delivering the tens of millions of letters and packages that stuffed a number of hangars to the ceilings–whereas additionally doing what was essential to maintain themselves within the segregated unit.
The ladies processed a median of 65,000 items of mail per shift, oftentimes having to decipher the meant social gathering’s title primarily based on little or ineligible data.
“A number of the letters had been addressed to simply ‘Buster’ or ‘Junior,’” stated retired Military Col. Edna Cummings, a Six Triple Eight skilled who was instrumental within the group’s congressional recognition, in an interview with DAV.org, a veterans help group. “Are you able to think about receiving the letter [addressed to] ‘Buster, Europe’?”
The 6888th was given six months to clear the estimated 17 million items of mail moldering within the warehouses. They accomplished the job in three. Then, they went on to totally different posts in France to do the identical.
“You had among the finest and brightest minds within the nation who had been capable of resolve an issue,” Cummings stated.
Robertson joined the Girls’s Military Corps as a method of changing into self-sufficient.
She was born March 5, 1924, and grew up in Osceola, Arkansas, the place her household labored on a crop farm, based on DAV.org. After her mom died, a younger Robertson and her brother had been successfully orphaned, and struggled with poverty as they bounced round from one relative’s home to a different.
Each she and her brother noticed the army as a approach out of poverty, and by 1945, Robertson had enlisted and skilled in a number of states earlier than being assigned to the 6888th.
“I really feel like I used to be a special particular person after we needed to sail throughout the ocean,” Robertson stated in a 2014 interview with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
However regardless of the monumental job they confronted and the inherent hazard of battle, Robertson stated in that interview that she was extra afraid returning residence than she was coming into army service.
“I had much more to fret about as a result of it’s all on you. In any other case, the Military [was] taking good care of all the pieces,” she stated, later including, “I needed to get out alone someday to start out doing one thing.”
Robertson adopted a buddy to Milwaukee and stayed. She labored at a fish manufacturing unit, at first, however finally gained employment as a nurse’s aide, together with on the presently named Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Middle in Milwaukee. Inside a number of years, she met and married John Robertson, additionally a World Warfare II veteran, and had seven daughters and one son.
Sheree Robertson, her daughter, described her mom as a faithful mother or father with an infectious spirit, who regardless of the pains of elevating eight kids and juggling numerous jobs all the time made time for his or her particular deal with – home made french fries. However, Sheree additionally remembered her mom’s tales about her army service.
“My mom talked about her army service to her kids, notably to me as a result of I used to be fascinated about my mom’s army service as a toddler,” Sheree advised DAV.org. “Primarily based on what she shared with me, she all the time centered on the sisterhood of the Six Triple Eight and the way the ladies seemed out for one another. And she or he would say issues like, ‘Oh, we shared one another’s garments, we did one another’s hair.’ They had been similar to household.”
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, who represents Milwaukee on Capitol Hill, stated she was honored Robertson selected to make town her adopted residence. (The WWII veteran had been slated to steer town’s Juneteenth celebration as grand marshal, an honor her household will now fulfill.) Rep. Moore stated she was additionally honored to have performed a job in championing laws to award Six Triple Eight members the Congressional Gold Medal.
“After receiving the Congressional Gold Medal and nationwide recognition a long time after her heroic service,” Moore stated in an announcement, “I’m grateful that my constituent, Ms. Robertson, was capable of obtain her flowers whereas she may nonetheless scent them.”
