Major Charity Adams commanded the 6888TH Central Postal Directory Battalion. She had joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC—the predecessor to the WAC) in 1942 and became the first African American woman to receive an Army commission. She ended the war as a lieutenant colonel and as the highest ranking black woman in the Army.

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was a unique U.S. Army unit and it had the distinction of being the only all-African American, all-female unit sent overseas during
World War II.The women kept mail flowing to nearly seven million soldiers in the European Theater of Operations (ETO).
The “6888” was the first and ONLY all women battalion to be deployed overseas.