What I’m watching – The Six Triple-Eight

The only reason we have a subscription to Netflix was to watch this movie. Strong women impress my wife, and she enjoys movies with strong women in it. She admires kick-ass characters like Wonder Woman and the Black Widow.

But those are fictional characters.

Now when the women are or were real live breathing kick-ass women? Well, that’s even better.

And this movie is just full of them. It follows the only battalion of Black WACs, The Six Triple-Eight. They’re led by a woman (Major Charity Adams) for who failure isn’t an option. Long regulated to jobs such as scrubbing pots and pans or doing laundry, few believe that women of color could do more. Major Adams soon finds her and her unit given a task that on the surface appears to be Mission: Impossible.

The Mission? Simple. Get the mail moving to and from the soldiers.

The impossible part? There’s over a dozen warehouses stacked to the rafters with mailbags. There’s months of mail there and the problem is just getting worse. Others have tried to tackle the problem. No one has gotten it done. They’ve got six months to solve the problem and get the warehouses emptied out and the letters and packages to the people they’re addressed to.

And if that isn’t bad enough, people who should know better are dead set on making sure they fail. They’re put in an old building and have to fix it up themselves. They have to build their methods from scratch. They encounter prejudices and discrimination at every turn and still they overcame.

I really don’t want to get into the side stories too much. There’s humor, tragedy, heartbreak, desperation, and a whole lot of just wanting to stand up and cheer. The story has a lot going on and all of it just needs to be seen to be appreciated. You can view it on Netflix and with hope, maybe on other channels or services soon.

Kerry Washington does an amazing job as Major Charity Adams. Her portrayal of Major Adams is breath-taking and made me so impressed with the Major that I’d have cheerfully followed that woman into Hell itself.

And hats off to Tyler Perry. Outstanding job and kudo’s on telling a story that’s way overdue. Every one of these ladies is a hero in a world that is mighty short of the real things.

Learn more about this incredible story by clicking Here.

There is a book by Priscilla Graham on this amazing unit and people. It just went on my must-read list.