Remembering Black Veterans & What We Owe Them

I spent several years writing a book about the valiant 6888th Central Postal Battalion, more widely known as the Six Triple Eight without thinking much about my main characters as veterans. This fact makes reflecting on the experiences of the 855 enlisted pioneering Black women who served their country by clearing millions of pieces of back-logged mail for troops who marched on Normandy somewhat ironic.

In my debut novel, Women of the Post, the main character, Judy Washington, is faced with a familiar dilemma for Black women — her husband is gone, in…