[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2350 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2350

 To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 23d Headquarters, Special 
 Troops and the 3133d Signal Service Company, in recognition of their 
   unique and highly distinguished service as a ``Ghost Army'' that 
     conducted deception operations in Europe during World War II.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 22, 2019

  Ms. Kuster of New Hampshire (for herself and Mr. King of New York) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
     Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House 
   Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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 highly distinguished service as a ``Ghost Army'' that 
     conducted deception operations in Europe during World War II.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The 23d Headquarters, Special Troops, comprised of the 
        23d Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Special Troops, the 
        603d Engineer Camouflage Battalion, the 406th Combat Engineer 
        Company, the 3132d Signal Service Company and the Signal 
        Company, Special, 23d Headquarters, Special Troops and the 
        3133d Signal Service Company were top-secret units of the 
        United States Army that served in Europe during World War II.
            (2) The 23d Headquarters, Special Troops, was actively 
        engaged in battlefield operations from June of 1944 through 
        March of 1945. The 3133d Signal Service Company was engaged in 
        operations in Italy in 1945.
            (3) The deceptive activities of these units were integral 
        to several Allied victories across Europe and reduced American 
        casualties.
            (4) In evaluating the performance of these units after the 
        War, a U.S. Army analysis found that ``Rarely, if ever, has 
        there been a group of such a few men which had so great an 
        influence on the outcome of a major military campaign.''.
            (5) Many Ghost Army soldiers were citizen-soldiers 
        recruited from art schools, advertising agencies, 
        communications companies, and other creative and technical 
        professions.
            (6) The first four members of the 23d Headquarters, Special 
        Troops, landed on D-Day and two became casualties while 
        creating false beach landing sites.
            (7) The 23d Headquarters, Special Troops, secret deception 
        operations commenced in France on June 14, 1944, when Task 
        Force Mason, a 17-man detachment of the 23d led by First 
        Lieutenant Bernard Mason, landed at Omaha Beach. Task Force 
        Mason conducted Operation ELEPHANT between 1 and 4 July, 1944, 
        to draw enemy fire and protect the 980th Field Artillery 
        Battalion (VIII Corps) as part of the Normandy Campaign.
            (8) Operation ELEPHANT was a prelude to 21 full-scale 
        tactical deceptions completed by the 23d Headquarters, Special 
        Troops.
            (9) Often operating on or near the front lines, the 23d 
        Headquarters, Special Troops, used inflatable tanks, artillery, 
        airplanes and other vehicles, advanced engineered soundtracks, 
        and skillfully crafted radio trickery to create the illusion of 
        sizable American forces where there were none and to draw the 
        enemy away from Allied troops.
            (10) The 3132d and the 3133d Signal Service Companies, 
        activated in Pine Camp (now Fort Drum), New York, at the Army 
        Experimental Station in March 1944, were the only two active 
        duty ``sonic deception'' ground combat units in World War II.
            (11) Soldiers of the 23d Headquarters, Special Troops, 
        impersonated other, larger Army units by sewing counterfeit 
        patches onto their uniforms, painting false markings on their 
        vehicles, and creating phony headquarters staffed by fake 
        generals, all in an effort to feed false information to Axis 
        spies.
            (12) During the Battle of the Bulge, the 23d Headquarters, 
        Special Troops, created counterfeit radio traffic to mask the 
        efforts of General George Patton's Third Army as it mobilized 
        to break through to the 101st Airborne and elements of 10th 
        Armored Division in the besieged Belgian town of Bastogne.
            (13) In its final mission, Operation VIERSEN, in March 
        1945, the 23d Headquarters, Special Troops, conducted a 
        tactical deception that drew German units down the Rhine River 
        and away from the Ninth Army, allowing the Ninth Army to cross 
        the Rhine into Germany. On this mission, the 1,100 men of the 
        Ghost Army, with the assistance of other units, impersonated 
        forty thousand men, or two complete divisions of American 
        forces, by using fabricated radio networks, soundtracks of 
        construction work and artillery fire, and more than 600 
        inflatable vehicles. According to a military intelligence 
        officer of the 79th Infantry, ``There is no doubt that 
        Operation VIERSEN materially assisted in deceiving the enemy 
        with regard to the real dispositions and intentions of this 
        Army.''.
            (14) Three soldiers of the 23d Headquarters, Special 
        Troops, gave their lives and dozens were injured in carrying 
        out their mission.
            (15) In April 1945, the 3133d Signal Service Company 
        conducted Operation CRAFTSMAN in support of Operation SECOND 
        WIND, the successful allied effort to break through the German 
        defensive position to the north of Florence, Italy, known as 
        the Gothic Line. Along with an attached platoon of British 
        engineers, who were inflatable decoy specialists, the 3133d 
        Signal Service Company used sonic deception to misrepresent 
        troop locations along this defensive line.
            (16) The activities of the 23d Headquarters, Special Troops 
        and the 3133d Signal Service Company remained highly classified 
        for more than forty years after the war and were never formally 
        recognized. The extraordinary accomplishments of this unit are 
        deserving of belated official recognition.
            (17) The United States is eternally grateful to the 
        soldiers of the 23d Headquarters, Special Troops and the 3133d 
        Signal Service Company for their proficient use of innovative 
        tactics throughout World War II, which saved lives and made 
        significant contributions to the defeat of the Axis powers.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Award Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of Representatives 
and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate 
arrangements for the award, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold medal 
of appropriate design to the 23d Headquarters, Special Troops, known as 
the ``Ghost Army'', collectively, in recognition of its unique and 
incredible service during World War II.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award referred to 
in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (in this Act referred 
to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike the gold medal with suitable 
emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
    (c) Smithsonian Institution.--
            (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal in 
        honor of the Ghost Army, the gold medal shall be given to the 
        Smithsonian Institution, where it will be available for display 
        as appropriate and available for research.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of the Congress 
        that the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal 
        awarded pursuant to this Act available for display elsewhere, 
        particularly at appropriate locations associated with the Ghost 
        Army, and that preference should be given to locations 
        affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck under section 3, at a price sufficient to cover the costs 
of the medal, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses.

SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDAL.

    The gold medal struck pursuant to this Act is a national medal for 
purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
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