Congressional Gold Medal for “Ghost Army”
David sends us a link to Fox News. I’m sure you remember the stories about the false units that were placed under the command of General Patton across the English Channel from Calais, France to distract the Germans from the Normandy Invasion. Well, Congress has decided that those units (The Ghost Army) deserve some praise from Congress in the form of the Congressional Gold Medal;
Two lawmakers say the Ghost Army’s battlefield exploits in the months after D-Day deserve recognition at long last.
“It is finally time that the American people recognize their ingenuity and selflessness which saved countless American and Allied lives,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said. “They deserve their due.”
King and Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) are sponsoring the “The Ghost Army Gold Medal Act” and the bill has already picked up 30 co-sponsors, The Washington Times reported Saturday.
A companion bill will be introduced soon in the Senate.
From The Ghost Army website;
The Ghost Army carried out 21 battlefield deceptions from June 1944 to March 1945. They often operated on or near the front lines in order to divert enemy attention away from actual units. Three of them were killed and dozens wounded, but they are credited with saving thousands of American lives.
Category: Historical
While the list of recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal is long and distinguished, it is just my opinion though that these troops should have received a military honor instead of or as well as this. They have all my respect.
I am facing one of those rare moments when I am nearly speechless. I have no clue what’s going on here, why King and some of his fellow critters are doing this. Where the hell did this come from? Or did he just wake up one day and say, “Gee, I have to do something military related that carries no political risk whatsoever….” Or is it that Hollywood is making a movie about the fake army and this gesture is part of the early PR? I don’t know but something stinks.
http://variety.com/2015/film/news/benedict-cumberbatch-the-war-magician-1201656495/
Bingo!
“Congressman King, will you hold for Tom Cruise please?”
“All gave some, Some gave all”!!
A really fun book on deception in war was written by the magician Jasper Maskelyne (sp?) called “The War Magician.” He participated in quite a few of these operations for the Brits, including fooling the Germans by ‘moving’ Alexandria and the Suez Canal.
correction, reading the article above – the book was written ABOUT Maskelyne Still a good read…and probably better than what CGI will do to it
Maskelyne was apparently his own best publicist. Genuine history shows little contribution from him.
Another example of a novelist taking tall tales at face value, something the regulars here can appreciate.
Ah, Peter King, the scourge of terrorists everywhere – well, so long as they don’t have an Irish brogue, anyway.
See…. Congress *CAN* pass legislation. Pity it cannot be current and relevant.
My father went ashore on Omaha beach on D+6 and followed Patton’s Third Army all the way to Czechoslovakia. Where is his Gold Medal?
We did the same type of mission in 1991 in storm. The USMC Task Force Troy part of the left. We did take a lot of contact while placing them on the border.
hook.http://www.1streconbnassociation.org/SP06NL/Troy.htm