Their WWII mission was secret for decades. Now the Ghost Army will get the Congressional Gold Medal

DALLAS – For a long time, their mission throughout World War II was a secret. With inflatable tanks, vehicles and planes, mixed with sound results, radio trickery, dress uniforms and appearing, the American army devices that turned into referred to as the Ghost Army helped outwit the enemy. Now, they’re being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Three of the seven identified surviving individuals are set to wait the rite at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, together with 100-year-old Seymour Nussenbaum of Monroe Township, New Jersey. Bernard Bluestein, 100, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and John Christman, 99, of Leesburg, New Jersey, also are set to wait.

“It was like putting on a big production,” Nussenbaum stated. “We have had in some cases people impersonating generals, putting on a general’s uniform and walking around the streets.”

Nussenbaum, who grew up in New York City, was learning artwork at the Pratt Institute earlier than he was drafted and in the end joined a unit that specialize in camouflage that was a part of the twenty third Headquarters Special Troops.

“Our mission was to fool the enemy, to put on a big act,” stated Nussenbaum, a painter who who went directly to have a profession in business artwork.

The law to honor the army devices with the Congressional Gold Medal — Congress’ best possible honor — was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. That got here after virtually a decade of labor through members of the family of the squaddies and Rick Beyer, a filmmaker and creator who has who helped convey their tale to gentle after their mission was declassified in 1996. Beyer, president of the the Ghost Army Legacy Project, produced and directed the 2013 documentary “The Ghost Army” and co-authored the 2015 book “The Ghost Army of World War II.”

“I just want to make sure it’s not forgotten,” Beyer said. “I think it’s a great use of ingenuity, creativity on the battlefield.”

The Ghost Army integrated about 1,100 squaddies in the twenty third Headquarters Special Troops, which performed about 20 battlefield deceptions in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany, and round 200 squaddies in the 3133rd Signal Company Special, which performed two deceptions in Italy.

Beyer stated their missions, performed close to the entrance strains, most probably stored hundreds of American lives.

One of the greatest missions, known as Operation Viersen, got here in March 1945 when the twenty third Headquarters Special Troops’ deception drew German devices clear of the level on the Rhine River the place the ninth Army was in reality crossing.

“They had hundreds of inflatables set up,” Beyer said. “They had their sound trucks operating for multiple nights. They had other units attached to them. They had set up multiple phony headquarters and staffed them with officers who were pretending to be colonels.”

“This was an all-hands-on-deck affair and it was completely successful,” Beyer said. “It fooled the Germans. They moved their troops to the river opposite where the deception was.”

In September 1944, the Ghost Army helped fill an opening in Gen. George Patton’s line throughout an assault on the Germans in the French town of Metz.

“They end up holding this part of the line for eight days, which is really long in terms of doing a deception, trying to keep up appearances,” Beyer stated.

Kim Seale of Dallas will be amongst the members of the family attending the rite. His father’s paintings in the Ghost Army got here as a marvel to him when — about six months after his father’s dying at the age of 84 in 2001 — he spoke to a Ghost Army member who was placing in combination a reunion.

“I said, ‘What do you mean, Ghost Army?’” Seale stated.

“My Dad never talked about it,” Seale said. “He kept the oath.”

He said his father, Oscar Seale, who was a captain, had told him that at one point during the war that he had transitioned from a tank division to serving as a courier. Seale said he now thinks that’s when his father joined the Ghost Army.

“It’s been a 20-plus year journey of learning about the Ghost Army, learning about what my Dad did, learning about what the men did and just being amazed at that story,” he stated.