II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1421 

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 23d Headquarters Special 

Troops and the 3133d Signal Service Company in recognition of their 

unique and distinguished service as a ‘‘Ghost Army’’ that conducted 

deception operations in Europe during World War II. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 13, 2019 

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. KING, Mr. 

BLUMENTHAL, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. KENNEDY, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. 

SCHUMER, and Ms. WARREN) introduced the following bill; which was 

read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 23d Headquarters Special Troops and the 3133d Signal Service 

Company in recognition of their unique and distinguished 

service as a ‘‘Ghost Army’’ that conducted deception 

operations in Europe during World War II. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ghost Army Congres5 sional Gold Medal Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds that— 

3 (1) the 23d Headquarters Special Troops (com4 prised of the 23d Headquarters and Headquarters 

5 Company, Special Troops, the 603d Engineer Cam6 ouflage Battalion, the 406th Combat Engineer Com7 pany, the 3132d Signal Service Company, and the 

8 Signal Company, Special, 23d Headquarters, Special 

9 Troops) and the 3133d Signal Service Company 

10 were top-secret units of the United States Army that 

11 served in Europe during World War II; 

12 (2) the 23d Headquarters Special Troops was 

13 actively engaged in battlefield operations from June 

14 of 1944 through March of 1945; 

15 (3) the 3133d Signal Service Company was en16 gaged in operations in Italy in 1945; 

17 (4) the deceptive activities of these units were 

18 integral to several Allied victories across Europe and 

19 reduced casualties; 

20 (5) in evaluating the performance of these units 

21 after World War II, an Army analysis found that 

22 ‘‘Rarely, if ever, has there been a group of such a 

23 few men which had so great an influence on the out24 come of a major military campaign.’’; 

25 (6) many Ghost Army soldiers were citizen-sol26 diers recruited from art schools, advertising agenVerDate Sep 11 2014 19:05 May 21, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1421.IS S1421

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1 cies, communications companies, and other creative 

2 and technical professions; 

3 (7) the first 4 members of the 23d Head4 quarters Special Troops landed on D–Day and two 

5 became casualties while creating false beach landing 

6 sites; 

7 (8) the 23d Headquarters Special Troops secret 

8 deception operations commenced in France on June 

9 14, 1944, when Task Force Mason (a 17-man de10 tachment of the 23d led by First Lieutenant Ber11 nard Mason) landed at Omaha Beach; 

12 (9) Task Force Mason conducted Operation 

13 Elephant from July 1 to 4, 1944, to draw enemy 

14 fire and protect the 980th Field Artillery Battalion 

15 (VIII Corps) as part of the Normandy Campaign; 

16 (10) Operation Elephant was a prelude to the 

17 21 full-scale tactical deceptions completed by the 

18 23d Headquarters Special Troops; 

19 (11) often operating on or near the front lines, 

20 the 23d Headquarters Special Troops used inflatable 

21 tanks, artillery, airplanes and other vehicles, ad22 vanced engineered soundtracks, and skillfully crafted 

23 radio trickery to create the illusion of sizable Amer24 ican forces where there were none and to draw the 

25 enemy away from Allied troops; 


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1 (12) the 3132d and the 3133d Signal Service 

2 Companies, activated in Pine Camp (now Fort 

3 Drum), New York, at the Army Experimental Sta4 tion in March 1944, were the only 2 active duty 

5 ‘‘sonic deception’’ ground combat units in World 

6 War II; 

7 (13) soldiers of the 23d Headquarters Special 

8 Troops impersonated other, larger Army units by 

9 sewing counterfeit patches onto their uniforms, 

10 painting false markings on their vehicles, and cre11 ating phony headquarters staffed by fake generals, 

12 all in an effort to feed false information to Axis 

13 spies; 

14 (14) during the Battle of the Bulge, the 23d 

15 Headquarters Special Troops created counterfeit 

16 radio traffic in an effort to deceive the enemy of the 

17 movement of elements of General George S. Patton’s 

18 Third Army as it shifted to break through to the 

19 101st Airborne Division and elements of 10th Ar20 mored Division in the besieged Belgian town of Bas21 togne; 

22 (15) in its final mission, Operation Viersen, in 

23 March 1945, the 23d Headquarters Special Troops 

24 conducted a tactical deception operation intended to 

25 draw German units down the Rhine River and away 


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1 from the Ninth Army, allowing the Ninth Army to 

2 cross the Rhine into Germany; 

3 (16) during Operation Viersen, the 23d Head4 quarters Special Troops with the assistance of other 

5 units, impersonated 40,000 men, or 2 complete divi6 sions of American forces, by using fabricated radio 

7 networks, soundtracks of construction work and ar8 tillery fire, and more than 600 inflatable and real 

9 vehicles; 

10 (17) according to a military intelligence officer 

11 of the 79th Infantry, ‘‘There is no doubt that Oper12 ation Viersen materially assisted in deceiving the 

13 enemy with regard to the real dispositions and inten14 tions of this Army.’’; 

15 (18) 3 soldiers of the 23d Headquarters Special 

16 Troops gave their lives and dozens were injured in 

17 carrying out their mission; 

18 (19) in April 1945, the 3133d Signal Service 

19 Company conducted Operation Craftsman in support 

20 of Operation Second Wind, the successful Allied ef21 fort to break through the German defensive position 

22 to the north of Florence, Italy, known as the Gothic 

23 Line; 

24 (20) along with an attached platoon of British 

25 engineers, who were inflatable decoy specialists, the 


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1 3133d Signal Service Company used sonic deception 

2 to misrepresent troop locations along this defensive 

3 line; 

4 (21) the activities of the 23d Headquarters 

5 Special Troops and the 3133d Signal Service Com6 pany remained highly classified for more than 40 

7 years after the war and were never formally recog8 nized; 

9 (22) the extraordinary accomplishments of this 

10 unit are deserving of belated official recognition; and 

11 (23) the United States is eternally grateful to 

12 the soldiers of the 23d Headquarters Special Troops 

13 and the 3133d Signal Service Company for their 

14 proficient use of innovative tactics during World 

15 War II, which saved lives and made significant con16 tributions to the defeat of the Axis powers. 

17 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

18 (a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The President Pro Tem19 pore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Rep20 resentatives shall make appropriate arrangements for the 

21 award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal of appro22 priate design to the 23d Headquarters Special Troops and 

23 the 3133d Signal Services Company in recognition of 

24 unique and highly distinguished service during World War 

25 II. 


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1 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purposes of the 

2 award referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the 

3 Treasury (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 

4 strike the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 

5 inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 

6 (c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the 

8 gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal 

9 shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where 

10 it shall be available for display as appropriate and 

11 made available for research. 

12 (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 

13 Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should 

14 make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 

15 available for display elsewhere, particularly at other 

16 locations associated with the 23d Headquarters Spe17 cial Troops and the 3133d Signal Services Company. 

18 (d) DUPLICATE MEDALS.—Under regulations that 

19 the Secretary may promulgate, the Secretary may strike 

20 and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck 

21 under this Act, at a price sufficient to cover the cost of 

22 the medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machin23 ery, and overhead expenses. 


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1 SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDAL. 

2 (a) NATIONAL MEDAL.—The gold medal struck 

3 under this Act shall be a national medal for the purposes 

4 of chapter 51 of title 31, Unites States Code. 

5 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purpose of section 

6 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 

7 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

Æ 


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