After decades of secrecy, the 'Ghost Army' is honored for saving U.S. lives in WWII

Members of the so-called "Ghost Army" used inflatable tanks, phony uniforms, fake rumors and special effects to deceive German forces during World War II, diverting attention from larger units and saving hundreds of thousands of American lives in the process.

But their contributions remained classified for decades, with many veterans taking the secret to their graves.

On Thursday, after many years of lobbying, they finally got public recognition — in the form of a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the legislative body bestows.

Three Ghost Army veterans came to the U.S. Capitol to accept the award, surrounded by military and congressional leaders, lawmakers from both parties and relatives of Ghost Army members.

"It has been 80 years since the Ghost Army landed in France, 19 years since I came to this story, nine years that I've been working on the gold medal," said Rick Beyer, president of the nonprofit Ghost Army Legacy Project. "This is a day that has been a long time coming. But it has been well worth the wait, right?"

The room roared with applause.

The award specifically honors the 23d Headquarters Special Troops, which carried out more than 20 "deception missions" near the front lines in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany between June 1944 and March 1945, as well as its sister unit, the 3133 Signal Co. Special, which practiced sonic deception in Italy in 1945.

The Ghost Army was made up of more than 1,000 troops — though could simulate two units totaling some 30,000 service members, according to the National WWII Museum. There are just seven surviving members, scattered across the country from Florida to Michigan to New Jersey.

Present at Thursday's event were: 100-year-old Bernard Bluestein, who