A secret no more: Suburban Ghost Army veteran receives Congressional Gold Medal

For more than a half-century, Hoffman Estates resident Bernard Bluestein’s World War II heroism was a military secret.

But on Thursday, the service of Bluestein and two other surviving members of the “Ghost Army” finally received overdue recognition, when they were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Bluestein, 100, and fellow Ghost Army veterans John Christman and Seymour Nussenbaum, both of New Jersey, accepted the newly created honor from House Speaker Mike Johnson during an event attended by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other dignitaries.

“The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest honor that this body can bestow upon any group or individual,” Johnson said.

Johnson later read from the Army’s declassified report on the group’s activities. One line reads, “Rarely, if ever, has there existed a group of such few men which had so great an influence on the outcome of a major military campaign.”

“These previously classified units were instrumental in helping American troops achieve key victories in Germany and Italy during World War II,” Johnson added.

Bluestein was the only Ghost Army member who spoke during the ceremony. He thanked Rick Beyer, president of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, which brought attention to the secretive unit.

“If it wasn’t for Rick, I wouldn’t be up here along with my comrades here,” Bluestein said. “He took the initiative when the information was released from the government and immediately decided to let the world know that we did exist.”

The Ghost Army is credited with saving about 30,000 Allied soldiers lives in Europe during World War II. Dubbed a “traveling road show of deception,” the unit’s mission was to fool the enemy about the strength and location of Allied troops.

Their weapons were unconventional — inflatable tanks, sound effects and radio trickery. Members even mingled with local populations to help spread misinformation.

The Ghost Army included men previously in the creative arts, like Bluestein, who was attending the Cleveland Institute of Art with the goal of becoming an industrial designer. In the Ghost Army, he was part of a team that created fake patches, signs and vehicle stencils.

His unit staged more than 20 operations, working perilously close to the front in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. Their tactics were designed to make a group of 1,100 troops appear to be a fighting force of more than 20,000.

One operation involved distracting the German army with a phony troop crossing of the Rhine River, while the real crossing took place elsewhere. They set up more than 600 inflatable tanks and artillery along the Rhine while sonic crews played sounds of trucks rolling in at night, and flash canisters were set off to feign artillery fire.

“They were responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives,” said former U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who co-sponsored the bill creating the Congressional Gold Medal. “And, by the way, they weren't just blowing up artificial tanks or building artificial runways. Many of them were covert operations behind enemy lines, as they would plant themselves and have conversations in hotels or in cafes, again to deceive the enemy. It was an incredible psychological operation and one of the most successful counterintelligence operations in human history.”

Another of the bill’s sponsors, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ann Kuster of New Hampshire, noted that Ghost Army veterans had to keep the details of their service secret, even to their families. She recalled how one discussed his service with relatives.

“(He said) ‘I blew up tanks,’ without saying they were inflatable tanks,” Kuster said.