[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1404 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.1404
One Hundred Seventeenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
the third day of January, two thousand and twenty two
An Act
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 23d Headquarters Special
Troops and the 3133d Signal Service Company, popularly known as the
``Ghost Army'', in recognition of their unique and highly distinguished
service in conducting 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.
Congress finds that--
(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 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;
(3) the 3133d Signal Service Company was engaged in operations
in Italy in 1945;
(4) the deceptive activities of these units were integral to
several Allied victories across Europe and reduced casualties;
(5) in evaluating the performance of these units after World
War II, an 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.'';
(6) many Ghost Army soldiers were citizen-soldiers recruited
from art schools, advertising agencies, communications companies,
and other creative and technical professions;
(7) the first 4 members of the 23d Headquarters Special Troops
landed on D-Day and 2 became casualties while creating false beach
landing sites;
(8) a detachment of Army radio operators under the command of
Lieutenant Fred Fox joined the invasion fleet for a planned
deception, Operation Troutfly, which was cancelled;
(9) Lieutenant Fox's men and their radios were instead attached
to the 82d Airborne, which had lost 95 percent of its radio
equipment, providing critical communications as the 82d Airborne
fought its way inland;
(10) the secret deception operations of the 23d Headquarters
Special Troops commenced in France on June 14, 1944, when Task
Force Mason, a 16-man detachment of the 23d led by First Lieutenant
Bernard Mason, arrived in Normandy;
(11) Lieutenant Mason and his men set up dummy artillery to
draw enemy fire and protect the 980th Field Artillery Battalion
(VIII Corps) as part of the Normandy Campaign;
(12) the rest of the soldiers of the 23d Headquarters Special
Troops arrived in France in July and August of 1944;
(13) full-scale deception efforts began with Operation Elephant
from July 1 to 4, 1944, in which the 23d Headquarters Special
Troops covered the movement of the 2d Armored Division when it left
a reserve position to go into the line between the First United
States and Second British Armies;
(14) Operation Elephant was the first of the 21 full-scale
tactical deceptions completed by the 23d Headquarters Special
Troops;
(15) 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;
(16) the 3132d and the 3133d Signal Service Companies,
activated in Pine Camp (now Fort Drum), New York, at the Army
Experimental Station in March and June of 1944, respectively, were
the only ``sonic deception'' ground combat units of the United
States in World War II;
(17) 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;
(18) during the Battle of the Bulge, the 23d Headquarters
Special Troops created counterfeit radio traffic in an effort to
deceive the enemy of the movement of elements of General George S.
Patton's Third Army as it shifted to break through to the 101st
Airborne Division and elements of 10th Armored Division in the
besieged Belgian town of Bastogne;
(19) in its final mission, Operation Viersen, in March 1945,
the 23d Headquarters Special Troops conducted a tactical deception
operation intended to draw German units down the Rhine River and
away from the Ninth Army, allowing the Ninth Army to cross the
Rhine into Germany;
(20) during Operation Viersen, the 23d Headquarters Special
Troops, with the assistance of other units, impersonated 2 complete
divisions of American forces by using fabricated radio networks,
soundtracks of construction work and artillery fire, and hundreds
of inflatable and real vehicles;
(21) 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.'';
(22) 3 soldiers of the 23d Headquarters Special Troops gave
their lives and dozens were injured in carrying out their mission;
(23) 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;
(24) 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;
(25) the activities of the 23d Headquarters Special Troops and
the 3133d Signal Service Company remained highly classified for
more than 40 years after the war and received minimal recognition;
(26) the extraordinary accomplishments of this unit are
deserving of belated official recognition; and
(27) 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 during 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 President Pro Tempore of the Senate and
the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall make appropriate
arrangements for the award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal of
appropriate design to the 23d Headquarters Special Troops and the 3133d
Signal Services Company, known collectively as the ``Ghost Army'', in
recognition of unique and highly distinguished 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 under
subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the Smithsonian
Institution, where it shall be available for display as appropriate
and made available for research.
(2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the
Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal received under
paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere, particularly at
other locations associated with the 23d Headquarters Special Troops
and the 3133d Signal Services Company.
(d) Duplicate Medals.--The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates
in bronze of the gold medal struck under this Act, at a price
sufficient to cover the cost of the medals, including labor, materials,
dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.
SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDAL.
(a) National Medal.--The medals struck under this Act are national
medals for the purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, Unites States Code.
(b) Numismatic Items.--For purpose of section 5134 of title 31,
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) Authority to Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such
amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck
under this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate
bronze medals authorized under section 3(d) shall be deposited into the
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
SEC. 6. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purposes of complying
with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by
reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO
Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional
Record by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that
such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.