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About the Episode
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a predominantly Black battalion in the Women’s Army Corps, is now memorialized in a new film, The Six Triple Eight, now available to stream on Netflix. Listen as Kimberly Guise, National WWII Museum Senior Curator & Director for Curatorial Affairs, and retired US Air Force Colonel Eries L.G. Mentzer discuss the history of these pioneering women of the 6888th.
Catch up on all podcasts from The National WWII Museum.
Topics Covered in this Episode
- The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion
- Women in service during WWII
- Major Charity Adams
- Romay Davis
- Women of color in the military
Featured Historians & Guests
Kimberly Guise
Kimberly Guise is the Senior Curator & Director for Curatorial Affairs at The National WWII Museum. She holds a BA in German and Judaic Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She also studied at the Universität Freiburg in Germany and holds a masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) from Louisiana State University. Guise is fluent in German, reads Yiddish, and specializes in the American prisoner-of-war experience in World War II. After working at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, Guise joined The National WWII Museum in 2008, where she has since facilitated the acquisition of thousands of artifacts, led numerous Museum tours, and curated several exhibits, including Guests of the Third Reich: American POWs in Europe.
Colonel Eries L.G. Mentzer, USAF Ret.
Eries Mentzer is a US Air Force veteran with over three decades of leadership experience. A trailblazer in her field, she is among the 2 percent of Black women to rise to the rank of Colonel in the Air Force. Throughout her career, Mentzer has been entrusted with critical, no-fail assignments, leading missions that shaped national security strategies, public policies, crisis management plans, and legislative engagements. As the first Black female commander of Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, she led a diverse population of over 42,000 active duty, guard, reserve, civilian, and military families. Mentzer is a passionate advocate for equal treatment and opportunity, and has dedicated much of her career to removing barriers to military service and ensuring that future generations can join the military and remain engaged. A graduated Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellow, she is a speaker, author, adviser, and board member of the President Harry S. Truman Library Institute. Mentzer is featured in The National WWII Museum's film “Our War Too: Women in Service,” and she led the creation of the Rosa Parks “Opening Eyes” Sculpture at Maxwell Air Force Base to honor Rosa Parks’s WWII service on the base that fueled her activism.
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