[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 216 (Wednesday, December 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9217-S9218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                GHOST ARMY CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL ACT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from 
further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. 1404.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1404) 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.

  There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the 
Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the Markey substitute 
amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as 
amended, be considered read a third time and passed; that the Markey 
amendment to the title be considered and agreed to; and that the motion 
to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment (No. 4894) in the nature of a substitute, was agreed 
to, as follows:

                (Purpose: In the matter of a substitute)

        Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 
     following:

     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

[[Page S9218]]

     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.

  The bill (S. 1404), as amended, was ordered to be engrossed for a 
third reading, was read the third time, and passed.
  The title amendment (No. 4895) was agreed to, as follows:

                     (Purpose: To amend the title.)

       Amend the title so as to read: ``A bill 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.''.

     

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