Finally a gold medal for the American ‘Ghost Army’ of World War II

For most of his life, Bernie Bluestein was not allowed to say anything about what he did during World War II in Western Europe.

Mr. Bluestein was a sophomore at the Cleveland School of the Arts in 1943 when he left to join the U.S. Army. He then trained in a secret unit that landed in Normandy, France, shortly after D-Day in June 1944.

“What we did was get the attention of the Germans so that the real units could do what they had to do elsewhere,” Mr. Bluestein, 100 years old, said in an interview.

As a Private First Class serving in the 603rd Camouflage Engineer Battalion, he created fake shoulder patches that his fellow soldiers wore on their uniforms to simulate various elements of an infantry division. He also painted truck bumpers to falsely represent the markings of army units that were actually located elsewhere.

During his last mission, Mr. Bluestein said, the ruse devised by his battalion’s roughly 360 soldiers forced German commanders to spread their defenses thinly in eastern France. This allowed the US Army’s 90th Division – which was actually 10 miles north of the 603rd – to cross the Rhine with less resistance.

“We saved the lives of about 30,000 soldiers,” said Mr. Bluestein.

The 603rd and similar units became known as the ‘Ghost Army’, which numbered approximately 1,100 troops. Together they blew up rubber tanks, created fake airfields, blasted the sounds of marching troops from loudspeakers on trucks, and designed other distractions to fool German soldiers.

The mission of these lightly armed soldiers, which were a precursor to the Army’s current psychological warfare units, was not officially released until 1996.

On Thursday, Mr. Bluestein and two other members of the Ghost Army — Seymour Nussenbaum, 100 years old, and John Christman, 99 years old — received the Congressional Gold Medal on Capitol Hill before a crowd of more than 600 people, including family members and friends.

Many attendees wore lapel pins depicting a shield with a cartoon ghost holding orange lightning bolts from the left hand, the unofficial insignia of a unit whose mission went unrecognized for more than fifty years.

President Biden signed the legislation authorizing the medal in 2022.

It is believed that only seven of the Ghost Army’s original 1,100 soldiers survive.

Mike Bagby flew from Birmingham, Alabama, to attend the ceremony honoring his father, Wilbur Wright Bagby, who served as an officer in the Ghost Army but died in 1992 before his unit’s activities were declassified.

“He took it to the grave,” his son said. “He just didn’t want to talk about it.”

“The way I found out was I hired a guy to research his history while he was in the war, just to get a timeline. And the researcher said, “Wow. Your father was in the Ghost Army, wasn’t he?’ I said, ‘Really?’ I had no idea.”

Mr Bagby said his father left the service shortly after the war and worked as a structural and mechanical engineer, mainly in the coal industry.

“He had a temperament like a competitive No. 1, but he had a great vocabulary and did the New York Times Sunday crossword in 15 minutes,” Mr. Bagby said. “But all his conversational language surrounded four letters.”

“This was a unit of nothing but a bunch of liars,” he joked. “You know, they presented themselves as a lot of different armies.”

He said that during the war, his father wrote in a letter to his mother, “I have worn more badges than most people in the entire army.”

Obtaining the Congressional Gold Medal for the soldiers took years of work, much of which was initiated by Rick Beyer, a film producer. He heard about the unit 19 years ago through a friend’s colleague, who said someone should make a documentary about them.

“It took us four sessions of Congress to do it, and it took a whole team,” Mr. Beyer said in an interview. “We had 40 to 50 people who were volunteer lobbyists. They were emailing. They were calling. They personally visited offices. Covid hit in the middle, but we adjusted our ways and carried on. And by God, we made it possible.”

In a small theater near Emancipation Hall, where military and congressional leaders greeted veterans before the ceremony, Mr. Beyer reflected on the enormous effort that had led to results.

“These men, these three boys and the four watching at home, and the thousand or so who are no longer with us, are finally being honored as they should be honored for what they did in World War II.”

Mr Beyer, who co-authored a book about the Ghost Army and made a documentary about it, said it was difficult to see so many survivors die.

“I always say the Ghost Army turns into an army of ghosts, but at least we did this,” he said. “We stuck this flag in the hill while some of them were still alive. And I think that is important.”