Time processing backlogged mail for american serviceman from europe. A Young Americans stood in front of number 10 downing street in the mid fifties as unfold man with a cigar came out the door. The Young American turned to him and said, mister Prime Minister, mr. Prime minister, tell us the secret of your success. The Prime Minister premised or Winston Churchill replied, study history. Study history. For him it light all the secrets of state craft. You heard a great phrase. Theres nothing you can do about having a 20 or 22yearold body, but there is no excuse for you not having a 5000 year old mind. It is at your fingertips. But let us continue to look back so we can see forward. I am pleased to introduce to you pat locke, will moderate the next panel. Pat locke was the first African American woman to graduate from the United StatesNaval Academy in 1980. She will bring forth a group of women that have an unheard story of Unsung Heroes that played an Important Role in americas history. Im pleased to introduce, pat locke. [applause] well, good morning everyone. Good morning. I know i have a lot of friends at the Naval Academy, but i am not the first African American women to graduate from the Naval Academy. Im the first African American woman to graduate from the United States military academy. I just want you to have that as an admin correction. So with that, i would like to say that i am honored to be in the presence of this history. I remember reading about these ladies in eight department of defense publication many years ago, and noticing everything that they went through to open the doors for people like me. So with that, i know we have very limited time here, so i want to make sure that i give them a chance to tell their story. So i would like to start out with just a general question, and anyone who would like to respond, please do so. I would like to hear from everyone. As you see fit, you can answer the question. So i would like i would just like to know, from that experience, and i think you all may know the history, you have the history on the background here, but they went into the six triple eight central postal battalion. It was formed to handle a backlog of young male. They had originally 800 African American women in that battalion and they deployed to britain. When they got their, they had a surprise waiting for them. 17 million pieces of mail that were backlogged. With all of that, with all of the deployment, i remember reading that the only way that African American women could serve overseas was if the theater commander specifically requested them. So the six triple eight was one of those italians that was recruited to come over to europe to serve in the european theater. With that, what was one aspect of your deployment, your effort, your successes over there, that you would like to relate to the audience . I would like to that i would like for them to know how appalling it seemed, with the mail piled as high as it was, for us to get it done and get it done in the time they wanted us to do it. We did it in eight months. Eight months, very good, very good. Did you have anything to add to that . Yes, when we got there, the mail was just piled up. It was rat infested. We had to find a place to make our postal facilities so that we could handle it. So we used an old airplane hangar and built our post office. And with that, we worked seven days a week, three shifts, and we were able to get the mail out in one third of the time that they had assigned us. Our motto was no mail, low morale. That was our motto. We felt that the one thing that Service People want is to be able to connect with their families. And the families, of course, want to see how their loved ones are doing. So it was a very Important Mission for us. To be able to have that connection. Very good. Before we go on, i want to make sure i get the comments from the ladies over here also. I want to make sure you know youre talking to. On the far end is miss johnson. Thank you for your service. Next to me is miss king. Thank you also for your service. Over here i have miss robertson. Thank you for your service. And on the far left i have miss ruddock. Thank you all for your service. So that you know who youre talking to. I think you have the biographies on the back of the screen. With that, do you have any comments on how much you had to do when you first arrived in england with the mail challenge . Everything . Did anyone else have any more comments regarding that before we go on to the next question . I think not only was there not place for our mail, we had no facilities to live in. We our facilities had been bombed and we had to quickly make a place for us to stay. We used in old school house. We cleaned it up and made that do for our lodgings. Very good. So you kind of improvised with everything. Everything we had to improvise. From what i read, the theater commander came down and he was very, very impressed with the level of discipline that you had in your unit. Your appearance, your military courtesy. How did all of that combat . How did you know to do that . Were you emulating someone else that you saw . That seriously kind of open up the doors for the rest of us, because you guys set a standard for all africanamerican women coming into the service after that. So did you have any comments regarding that . You are in the army. You do what youre told and you wear what you wear. Period. You dont have any problems. When you enlisted, you do is youre told, you where the government of the day and that was it. Clothes was not a thing. Thats not a problem. Thats away from it. You have a uniform, you wear it. The point is that you have a job to do and you do the job, period. I dont know what other questions you have, because i could go on forever. I just remember i really appreciated when i saw the photos, when i was enlisted i did not know any thing, when i saw the photos and so how sharp you all look with you uniforms and shoes and everything. It made me want to join. Yeah, well, you know when you are in uniform for dress parades or formal rights, but you are there to do your work. We had a job to do. So clothes is not the point. The point is to get the mail out. To get the mail out. Your motto was no mail, low morale. All right, very good. So what is one of the primary, the best, the most important lesson that you can share with our audience right now about maybe leadership . About hardship. About work ethic. Anything like that that you can share with the audience right now. You were enlisted to do a job. Whatever you sign, this is what you did. This is why you were there. So you can go on doing just whatever you want to do. You came there to do your duty for the country. And of course, you had to follow the rules and regulations. This is what we signed up for. Okay. So you had a very hard experience. You had to deploy to england, but then you also had to deploy from england to france. You had all of that happen in a very short amount of time. Can you tell me about the transition. You had to have a huge were getting to get that done. And the hardships. Did you pull allnighters . You are in the army, you do it youre told. The army has a method to do it. When we work, we had three shifts. We did what we were told so therefore i was a pc, so i did when i was told. Therefore we sorted the mail, we directed it to where it was supposed to go, and we did as we were told. As i said, we work in three shifts. So when you are doing that and doing the best you can, theres no questions about it. In the army, you dont question anything. You do as you are told or else. So therefore, that was not a big problem. This was something new to us and we were pretty young. I was 19 when i went in. So that was it and no problem. We ended up in paris. We worked the three shifts and we were able to get the mail redirected in a very short time. So we were able to do it in less than a year and thats it. Okay, can you talk to us a little bit about the leadership that you had . You obviously accomplished a lot in a small amount of time. Did the leadership have anything to do with that . I think we all were dedicated and knew what we had to do. We were told in the beginning that this was our job. So this is the way that we had been trained. And we went there to do this job and we got it done. So i think when they chose the group, when we were trained. We knew that it was discipline that kept us intact and made us know that this was an assignment and we knew this is what we signed up for. So it was just that work ethic that we had, and i think that shows women who they could rely on to work that way. To think that way. Okay, very good. So you had both army and air force women in the same battalion . At that time, they were all one unit. Air force and army were together. Okay, very good. It was just later, i think a number of years later, that they were separated. Yeah. So can you speak of how did you all get along . How did we get a loan . [laughs] did you guys get along okay . Did you guys have individual bedrooms . You have best friends . Did you have people you hated . Being in the army unit with that amount of pressure to get things done, did the pressure cause friction. Or you just had all best friends, right . Not really. You do is youre told. Its like in college. [laughs] it doesnt matter how you feel or what you think, youve got a job to do and you do it. Okay. Period. We have a theme here. Youve got a job, youve got to get it down no matter what. Thats right. Its like anywhere else, you choose the group that you want to hang out with. We were a large battalion. You dont know everyone, but you are there for the same purpose. Right. Your leadership helped to guide, but your little groups, you know what your assignment is, your discipline, and you do it. Thats it. I think we went there with the attitude that we were there to do a job. And you were very, very successful with all of that pressure and your big sisterhood in the battalion. Did you have a social life at all . 17 million pieces of mail, you have time to do anything else . Go to a movie . Go out on dates . Any socialite whatsoever . No, not too much, really. [laughs] okay, i just thought i would ask because you all had lots to do. Well, we made