- The Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’s highest honor, is awarded to the Ghost Army, America’s secret military unit during World War II.
- The recognition came after the unit’s decades-long mission was declassified in 1996.
- The bill awarding the Ghost Army the Congressional Gold Medal was signed into law by President Biden in 2022.
For decades, their mission during World War II was a secret. Inflatable tanks, trucks, and airplanes combined with sound effects, radio tricks, costumes, and acting helped the American military unit that became known as the Ghost Army outsmart their enemies. Now they have been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Three of the seven members known to be alive, including 100-year-old Seymour Nussenbaum of Monroe Township, New Jersey, are scheduled to attend a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. Bernard Bluestein, 100, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and John Christman, 99, of Leesburg, New Jersey, are also scheduled to attend.
“It was like putting on a huge production,” Nussenbaum said. “In some cases, people pretend to be generals and walk around town wearing generals’ uniforms.”
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Nussenbaum, who grew up in New York City, studied art at Pratt Institute before being drafted into the military and eventually joining a unit specializing in camouflage, part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Forces.
This photo shows an inflatable tank in March 1945. The Congressional Gold Medal is awarded in recognition of the outstanding contributions of the Ghost Army, a unit of the United States military during World War II. (National Archives/Ghost Army Legacy Project, via AP)
“Our mission was to deceive the enemy and put on a big show,” said Nussenbaum, a painter who later pursued a career in commercial art.
A bill to award military units the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’s highest honor, was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. The bill was passed after nearly a decade of work by military families and director Rick Beyer. The author helped bring their story to light after their mission was declassified in 1996. Bayer, president of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, produced and directed the documentary “The Ghost Army” in 2013 and co-authored the book “The Ghost” in 2015. Army of World War II. ”
“I just want to make sure it’s not forgotten,” Bayer said. “I think there’s a lot of ingenuity and creativity on the battlefield.”
The Ghost Army includes approximately 1,100 soldiers from the 23rd Headquarters Special Forces, which conducted approximately 20 battlefield deceptions in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Germany, and the 3133rd Special Signal Forces, which conducted two deceptions in Italy. It included about 200 soldiers from the company.
Beyer said their mission, carried out near the front lines, likely saved thousands of American lives.
One of the biggest missions was Operation Viersen, which took place in March 1945 and involved deception by the 23rd Headquarters Special Forces, which led German troops to retreat from the point on the Rhine River where the 9th Army had actually crossed. I was separated.
“They had hundreds of inflatables set up,” Beyer said. “They had sound trucks running for several nights. They had other units attached. They set up multiple fake headquarters, staffed by officers pretending to be colonels.”
“This was an all-hands-on-deck effort, and it was a complete success,” Bayer said. “The Germans were fooled. They moved their troops to the river opposite where they were fooled.”
In September 1944, the Ghost Army helped fill gaps in General George Patton’s lines during an attack on German forces in the French city of Metz.
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“They end up holding this part of the line for eight days, which is a very long time in terms of deception trying to maintain appearances,” Beyer said.
Kim Thiel of Dallas will be among the family members attending the ceremony. About six months after his father passed away in 2001 at age 84, he spoke with a member of Ghost Army who was organizing a reunion, and his father’s work with Ghost Army came as a surprise to him.
“I said, ‘Ghost Army, what do you mean?'” Seale said.
“My father never talked about it,” Seal said. “He kept his oath.”
He said his father, Oscar Seal, who was a captain, told him that at some point during the war he was transferred from a tank division to become a courier. Seal said he now believes that was when his father joined the Ghost Army.
“It’s been a 20-plus year journey of learning about the Ghost Army, learning what my father did, learning what the men did, and just being amazed by the stories,” he said.
