Yahoo News Meet Romay Davis, 102-Year-Old Black Female Army Vet Honored with Gold Medal for Groundbreaking WWII Service
All Romay Davis wanted in her early 20s was to follow her five brothers into the U.S. military, leave the rural Virginia home she shared with her supportive parents and chase a little adventure along the way.
She found it while making history in the first all-female, all-women-of-color unit to serve in the U.S. Army in World War II. Now, at age 102, as the oldest of six survivors of the groundbreaking 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, she's a new recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow.
"I was surprised," Davis tells PEOPLE of learning about the award. "I'm still surprised, very much so because I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, except go in the military."
She received her citation, which was approved by President Joe Biden in March for all 855 members of the unit, on Tuesday in Montgomery, Ala., from Col. Eries L.G. Mentzer, the first Black woman to command Maxwell Air Force Base.
The presentation also marked the 74th anniversary of Executive Order 9981, which integrated the Armed Forces in 1948, several years after Davis enlisted.
Davis knew she was bound for a female-only unit in Europe but downplayed its significance, then and now. "What difference does it make?" she remembers thinking. "We do work just like anybody else. We learn, like anyone else."
The base commander countered Davis' humble portrayal.
Courtesy Public Affairs Office, Maxwell Air Force Base 102-year-old Romay Davis with Col. Eries L.G. Mentzer, commander of Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama
"It was not easy for Rosa Parks," Col. Mentzer tell PEOPLE. "It wasn't easy for Romay Davis. Frankly, my life and my career have not been easy. There's a constant pressure to be perfect, especially when you're the 'first' at something. You want to make sure that the work you're doing doesn't close the door for others, to give any reason to say, 'Well, look, we tried it once.'"
"Despite what she was handed, despite the fact that there were so many barriers for her service, she persevered and she pushed to allow more freedom for people to serve our nation in the Armed Forces," she continues.
"I would not be here without Romay Davis," Col. Mentzer adds.
Courtesy Public Affairs Office, Maxwell Air Force Base Romay Davis during her military service in 1945
Davis later worked for 30 years as a children's fashion designer, earned a Taekwondo black belt in her 70s and then spent two decades in her 80s and 90s stocking shelves for the Winn-Dixie grocery chain in Montgomery. She also paints and writes poetry.
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All these decades later, Davis credits her military service for jump-starting her full life.
"I had traveled and grown up with five boys, and my mother and father were very active people," she says. "So I was in the active group, ready to do whatever was chosen for me to do."
US Air Force, Air University Public Affairs. Photo by Cassandra Cornwell Romay Davis
Among those brothers who enlisted ahead of her, Davis says two of them went into the Marines, one became a sailor, one worked as an aircraft airman and one was stationed in Hawaii with the U.S.O.
"My main reason for enlisting was my last brother," she says. "When my baby brother left, I thought about it a few days, and I thought about my mom and pop being left by themselves."
"But I said, 'They could make it,' because they were younger and healthy and active, and I was also, and I wanted to be free to take the chance, to get the experience of being in a group and away from home."
"I talked it over with mom," she says. "She wasn't necessarily a homebody. She was into whatever was going on. She was a very forward-looking person. Thank goodness for that."
US Air Force, Air University Public Affairs. Photo by Cassandra Cornwell A footlocker presented to Romay Davis on Tuesday with a duplicate of her lost WWII uniform
The female veterans of what became known as the "Six Triple Eight" served stateside and in Europe, says U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, who sponsored the legislation awarding the medals.
"Though the odds were set against them, the women of the Six Triple Eight processed millions of letters and packages during their deployment in Europe, helping connect WWII soldiers with their loved ones back home — like my father and mother," Moran said in a news release.
After serving "two years, four months and three days, I think," Davis followed her time in the Women's Army Corps by relocating from her parents' home in King George County, Virginia, to New York City. An alum of New York University, she took up fashion because another career she coveted wasn't open to her.
"I wanted to be a doctor and I couldn't be at that time," she says. "I chose design secondly."
She landed in Montgomery, Ala., she says, after moving there with her husband, Jerry Davis, who was from the area. The two — both retired from military service — married after the war and were together about 47 years before he died in 1999. The couple did not have children.
In 2019, Winn-Dixie celebrated Davis' work for the grocery chain on her 100th birthday. "It's unreal," store manager Bobby Godwin told the Montgomery Advertiser upon the occasion. "She's doing more work than a 25-year-old."
Toulouse Village Winn Dixie/Facebook Romay Davis was celebrated in 2019 for her 100th birthday at the Winn-Dixie grocery where she worked at the time
The pandemic sent Davis home against her will. "I'm delicate and I catch anything that goes by me, but I've been very fortunate," she says. "I was very healthy, for one thing. I'm old. I've admitted that I'm old, but I never thought about it before. Mama never taught us about watching your birthdays."
Along with her citation — the actual medal will come later — on Tuesday Davis received a duplicate of the WWII uniform she wore, which was lost long ago. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden recently called to congratulate her. A representative of the Smithsonian Institution was on hand to document the ceremony.
"Think about Romay's service," says Col. Mentzer. "She served in a segregated unit. She proudly wore the uniform of her nation and went overseas fighting fascism, working to spread democracy around the world, when she and people like her were denied democracy in America."
"I just think about the burden that she and the women of that unit had to bear," she adds. "She worked in a rat-filled warehouse where they had to deal with sexism and racism in deplorable conditions. And yet they performed to such a high level of perfection that earned congressional medal recognition. That level of excellence is so inspiring."
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Says Davis: "I've enjoyed my life."
But far from a retiring presence, she remains an advocate still aware of the need for change.
"Women are as capable, if I said that correctly, as men are in their chosen positions," she says. "So if you give them more chance — and Black women especially, because they haven't had the same opportunity — give them a chance and see what they can do. Ask them."
