The Ghost Army is credited with saving thousands of American lives and helping end WWII in Europe. But its contributions were kept secret for half a century. On Thursday, it won Congress' top honor.
The Ghost Army is credited with saving thousands of American lives and helping end WWII in Europe. But its contributions were kept secret for half a century. On Thursday, it won Congress' top honor.Ghost Army members John Christman, of Leesburg, N.J., second from left standing, Seymour Nussenbaum, of Monroe Township, N.J, in wheelchair at left, and Bernard Bluestein, of Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Present at Thursday's event were: 100-year-old Bernard Bluestein, who joined the visual deception unit from the Cleveland Institute of Art and went on to pursue a career in industrial design; 99-year-old John Christman, who served as a demolition specialist and 100-year-old Seymour Nussenbaum, an avid stamp collector who joined the Army from the Pratt Institute. He helped make the counterfeit patches worn by the unit, and worked in package design for many years after the war.
"The Ghost Army's tactics were meant to be invisible, but today their constructions will no longer remain unseen in the shadows," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., one of the bill's two Senate sponsors."Their weapons were unconventional, but their patriotism was unquestionable.
One of those people was Gilbert Seltzer. The 26-year-old architectural draftsman was told after enlisting in the Army that he would be put on a top-secret mission, and endedthat soldiers would project the sound of tanks on the nights that they moved through villages in France, Belgium and Germany."The natives would say to each other, 'Did you see the tanks moving through town last night?' And they were not lying," he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell quoted one late veteran, saying"'sparing one mother or new bride the agony of putting a gold star in their front window' was what their unit was all about." Wormuth said Thursday that immediately after the war, Ghost Army soldiers received a letter of thanks from then-Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, with a memorable P.S.:"If you tell anyone, I'll see that you hang.""It kind of forgot about it until the late 80s, when they suddenly rediscovered this and started bringing Ghost Army soldiers to the Pentagon for briefings," he explained.
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