PHOENIX (KNXV) \u2013 Snow, rain and heat can\u2019t stop the mail. Neither can war.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s something that Maj. Fannie Griffin-McClendon knows personally, as even World War II couldn\u2019t keep her from her duty.<\/p>\n
Not even a broken hip for the 104-year-old could keep her from hitting the road for an event held in her honor.<\/p>\n
For her, that honor is for all of the ladies of the Six Triple Eight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do I want them to remember? That is the work that the women did to get the mail out to the troops all over the world,\u201d Griffin-McClendon said.<\/p>\n
Griffin-McClendon is now the last surviving member of the legendary unit.<\/p>\n
The all-Black female battalion cleared a massive backlog of wartime mail, restoring connection, lifting spirits and providing their motto true: \u201cNo Mail, No Morale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told us all about how people were concerned about not getting mail, so the girls were going to see to it that they did,\u201d Griffin-McClendon said.<\/p>\n
For decades, their story was overlooked.<\/p>\n
However, recently, from a Netflix film to national recognition, their service is finally in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
The Phoenix VA did exactly that Thursday in Memorial Hall at Steel Indian School Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know the greatest generation as they\u2019re known, the World War II generation, that living history is going to come to an end here soon,\u201d Elijah Ditter with the VA said. \u201cAnd to make sure we are doing everything we can do as VA to honor them in this moment and the future is what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The VA unveiled a bronze plaque for Griffin-McClendon, Arizona\u2019s very own trailblazer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said give me my flowers while I\u2019m living, so that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Griffin-McClendon said.<\/p>\n
When the curtain dropped, so did the tears.<\/p>\n
What may look like a plaque is really a promise that Griffin-McClendon\u2019s remarkable legacy will keep delivering long after the last letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, because I didn\u2019t expect anything like this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As of last year, about 66,000 World War II veterans were still living out of 16.4 million who served.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KNXV via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (KNXV) \u2013 Snow, rain and heat can\u2019t stop the mail. Neither can war. That\u2019s something that Maj.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":172680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[98517,5229,5643,1587,98516,98519,1589,98518,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,41048,98520],"class_list":{"0":"post-172679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-104-year-old","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-fannie-griffin-mcclendon","13":"tag-mail","14":"tag-phoenix","15":"tag-six-triple-eight","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa","22":"tag-world-war-ii","23":"tag-world-war-ii-veteran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115085897037257029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}