Ghost Army in the News

A World War II hero marks a milestone birthday in Kent County. Thursday, Feb. 2 marks 100 trips around the sun for Tom Anderson, a WWII veteran and master of deception. Anderson was part of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, better known as the "Ghost Army." "We had rubber tanks and rubber people and everything was an imitation," said Anderson. "We could draw the Germans any place we wanted them, and it worked."

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The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee approved proposed designs by teleconference Nov. 15 for a congressional gold medal recognizing the Ghost Army, tactical deception soldiers comprising two U.S. Army units that deceived the German army on the battlefields of Europe during World War II. [...] read more

Owensboro resident Kenneth Miller, 98, was honored Saturday for his service during World War II as a member of the “Ghost Army,” officially known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. The Ghost Army, a tactical deception unit, was recently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Miller is one of only 10 living members of the Ghost Army. [...] read more

"We had fake airplanes, fake balloons. You name it, I did it," Manny Frockt said of the once-secret "Ghost Army," whose creations are in a traveling exhibit [...] read more

One of nine surviving members of a top-secret World War II military unit was awarded with the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony in Palatine to honor the “Ghost Army.” WGN News "Cover Story" by Mike Lowe. [...] read more

Bernie Bluestein was 19 years old when he spotted a vaguely worded notice on the bulletin board at his Cleveland art college in March 1943. It was the middle of World War II, and the United States Army was seeking recruits for a new, non-combat camouflage unit that would draw on the art of deception to misdirect the enemy. [...] read more

This week President Joe Biden signed a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to some unsung heroes of World War II: the so-called "Ghost Army" – top-secret military units that deployed inflatable tanks and artillery, decoy soldiers, and fake communications to fool enemy forces. Jane Pauley reports. [...] read more

Two top-secret units that saved 30,000 lives by using INFLATABLE TANKS, sound effects and radio trickery to lure Germans away from US units in Europe will be awarded [...] read more

President Biden signed a bill that bestows the Congressional Gold Medal to the members of “a traveling roadshow of deception” that built inflatable tanks and trucks to trick the Germans. [...] read more

Renowned architect Gilbert Seltzer has died at age 106. During World War II, he was one of the 1,100 men who made up the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, also known as the Ghost Army, who helped the allies win the war with a series of creative deceptions that included inflatable tanks and wooden airplanes. Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist remembers a life well lived. [...] read more

He was one of the last survivors of a band of Army con artists who duped German forces with their arsenal of fakery, including inflatable tanks and scripted radio transmissions. [...] read more

There are endless stories of courage and heroism by the soldiers of World War II, told and retold in countless books and movies. However, some of those soldiers took their stories and secrets to their graves without receiving the honor and recognition they deserved. One of them was my father. [...] read more

Summer is traditionally a time for relaxing, for leisure — maybe traveling to a scenic locale. Seventy-seven years ago this summer, many of America’s most-promising young men spent the summer in France — not on vacation but waging a desperate war against Hitler and his legions. We are bound to continually honor and recognize their courage and sacrifice. This summer, a campaign is underway to give official recognition to one group of deserving GIs who have been denied that honor for decades: The Ghost Army. [...] read more

Radio interview previerewing August 18 Ghost Army Presentation by Roy Eichhorn. [...] read more

Sure, the Ghost Army could be duly recognized fifty years from now, but wouldn’t it be great to hang these medals around the necks of these eleven unsung heroes sooner rather than later? [...] read more

​FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — All was not always as it seemed to enemy troops during World War II courtesy of units assigned to the U.S. Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. Skilled in deception tactics, this covert unit of 1,100 service members — 20 hailing from Missouri — were known collectively as the Ghost Army, and they used a variety of unique tactics to keep the enemy off the heels of American Soldiers. Roy Eichhorn, founding member of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, told the unit’s history to engineer Soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood during a [...] read more

Branson’s big-screen honored soldiers of a largely unknown army this weekend. In honor of Ghost Army Recognition Day, Branson IMAX showed a documentary on the highly secretive World War II army units. [...] read more

Thousands of history books, novels, movies and TV shows depict the many conflicts and battles of World War II. It sometimes seems there are no stories left untold. Yet there are examples of tactical daring, personal courage and sacrifice that have never received the full recognition and honor they deserve. One of them is the Ghost Army. [...] read more

In the weeks following D-Day, a highly specialized group of men arrived in France. The 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops were there not to fight, but to deceive — mounting a “traveling road show” of inflatable tanks, fake radio broadcasts and more, designed to convince Hitler’s generals that Allied forces were massing where in reality they were not. [...] read more

A California High School student who is advocating for the Ghost Army has received an award from the National World War II Musuem in New Orleans. [...] read more

WOONSOCKET – In the 1940s, dozens of city residents who worked at the Alice Mill participated in a secret war effort that would help turn the tide of World War II. The only thing was, they didn’t know it at the time. [...] read more

A movement is in the works to award members of the recently declassified WWII "Ghost Army" unit with a Congressional Gold Medal. Rick Beyer, president of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, joins us to discuss the tactics this group used to become successful. [...] read more

Let us pause to remember and honor the “Ghost Army,” the top secret World War II-era Army unit that staged 20 daring and deceptive operations near the front lines of Europe. [...] read more