Columbus Neighborhoods
Claire Waters And The 6888: Unsung Heroes of WWII Mail Delivery
Special | 1m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
Claire Waters served in WWII’s 6888th and later founded Project Help in Columbus.
Claire Waters served in the 6888th Battalion, the only all-Black Women’s Army Corps unit stationed overseas in WWII, ensuring soldiers received vital mail. After the war, she founded Project Help Clothing Ministry in central Ohio, now celebrating 40 years under her daughter’s leadership. Though she passed in 2005, the 6888th has since been honored with a monument and a Congressional Gold Medal.
Columbus Neighborhoods is a local public television program presented by WOSU
Columbus Neighborhoods
Claire Waters And The 6888: Unsung Heroes of WWII Mail Delivery
Special | 1m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
Claire Waters served in the 6888th Battalion, the only all-Black Women’s Army Corps unit stationed overseas in WWII, ensuring soldiers received vital mail. After the war, she founded Project Help Clothing Ministry in central Ohio, now celebrating 40 years under her daughter’s leadership. Though she passed in 2005, the 6888th has since been honored with a monument and a Congressional Gold Medal.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship>>> In this picture, we see Claire Waters in her uniform.
Waters served in the 6,888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in World War II.
Nicknamed the 6888, they were the only women Army Corps or WACs unit that was comprised entirely of women of color to be stationed overseas during World War II.
They were tasked with sorting through airplane hangars full of backlogs of mail to go out to service members.
And this unit did so with great speed and efficiency.
And they worked from 1945 to 1946.
While they didn't receive a lot of recognition for their work.
At the time, there have been efforts to try to correct that.
At Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 2008, there was a monument dedicated to the 6888, and in 2022, the United States House of Representatives unanimously voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 6888.
Claire Waters herself was from Georgia, but she settled in central Ohio after the war, and in 1984 she started Project Help Clothing Ministry, and they are actually celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.
And though Claire Waters passed away in 2005, her daughter, Sandra Waters Holley, is carrying on that legacy of her mother by continuing to run Project Help today.
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Ohio Snapshots in Time is produced by WOSU Public Media in partnership with the staff of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
Columbus Neighborhoods is a local public television program presented by WOSU