[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.