Mildred Gates Hooper

Mildred Gates Hooper

U.S. Army

Quick Facts

Significance:

World War Two Veteran and member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

Place of Birth:

Carthage, Texas

Date of Birth:

February 2, 1922

Place of Death:

Houston, Texas

Date of Death:

December 18, 2018

Place of Burial:

Pearland, Texas

Cemetery Name:

Paradise South Cemetery

Mildred Gates was born on February 2, 1922 to Marshal and Addie Gates in Carthage, Texas. She grew up in Marshall, Texas as the youngest of nine siblings. In 1940, she graduated from Marshall’s Central High School. On November 27, 1941 she married her husband, Marvin Hooper, at the Jordan Grove Baptist Church in Longview, Texas.

Ten days after her wedding the Empire of Japan bombed the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor. This officially thrust the United States into World War Two. After entering World War II, the United States moved to expand its military capacity. In the spring of 1942, the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), later known as the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was formed.

Marvin Hooper along with Mildred Hooper’s two brothers and two nephews were eventually drafted into the military. Hooper, like many women of the time wanted to do their part in the war effort. She was not old enough to enlist right away and had to wait till she was 21. She enlisted in 1943. She completed basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. After basic training she was assigned to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma for more training. She was then assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia before being deployed overseas. The 6888th, known as the Six Triple Eight, was the only African American WAC unit to go overseas during the war. Their mission was to sort, organize, and direct mail to U.S. servicemen.

On February 3, 1945, the first group of women from the 6888th sailed to Great Britain. The voyage took 11 days, during which they survived close encounters with Nazi U-Boats. Hooper ate lemon slices throughout the voyage to prevent from getting seasick. They arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, on February 14, 1945. The 6888th was then stationed in Birmingham, England, where they discovered warehouses full of undelivered mail. The unit worked in three shifts around the clock seven days a week to clear the backlog. They adopted the phrase, “No Mail, Low Morale”—mail was the only connection the men fighting on the front lines had with friends and family back home. Before the 6888th, mail delivery was intermittent at best. The morale of the soldiers was waning because they had no connections outside the military.

The women developed a new system of organizing and tracking mail. The system required tracking individual servicemembers by maintaining about seven million information cards. The cards included serial numbers to distinguish different individuals with the same name. They also tried to deliver mail with insufficient information through this system. The hardest part for the unit was returning mail when it was addressed to a servicemember who died. Yet, thanks to their system, they were able to process approximately 195,000 pieces of mail per day. The U.S. Army thought it would take the 6888th six months to clear the mail backlog in Birmingham. The 6888th cleared the back log in three months.

In May 1945, Hooper and the rest of the 6888th were transferred to Rouen, France. They were there to clear another mail backlog. In France, the Six Triple Eight worked alongside French civilians and German prisoners of war. 

In December 1945, Hooper sailed back to the United States and was honorably discharged from the WAC at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Hooper was asked later about returning to the United States and she said “Our families were waiting to greet us home. We were happy we had contributed to the very end!”

Waiting for Hooper in New Jersey was her husband who returned from campaigns in Africa and Naples, Italy a few days before she was discharged. The Hoopers soon moved to Chicago, Illinois for three years before they relocated to Houston, Texas. While in Houston the Hooper’s had three daughters. Mrs. Hooper also enrolled in Texas Southern University. After college Hooper worked for the federal government in several civilian jobs. She worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital for two years before she transferred to Ellington Air Force Base in Houston for the next ten years. She eventually retired from the legal division at the downtown Houston Federal Building. Mrs. Mildred Hooper died on December 18, 2018 at the age of 96. She was buried in the Paradise South Cemetery in Pearland, Texas.