Rick had worked for years and through multiple Congresses to get the Ghost Army Gold Medal bill passed—it is a strenuous process which requires 2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate to sign on to the bill as cosponsors before it can ever be brought to committee consideration and then to the floor.

Rick Beyer at the Congressional podium

The Gold Medal Ceremony was held in Emancipation Hall at the US Capitol. Only six veterans were alive at the time of the ceremony and three of them attended in person. (The youngest of the three was a spry 99 years old.) 600 people (including nearly 400 family members of Ghost Army veterans) attended the event, which included speeches by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senators Ed Markey and Susan Collins, Representative Ann Kuster and former Representative Chris Stewart, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, and Rick Beyer. Also in attendance were the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., and the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Randy George.

All of the speakers enumerated in the article. Two of the veterans are seated in wheelchairs; the third is standing, third from the left. Each is with a family member.

“It was an incredibly moving event,” said Cathy. “Sharing with all of these family members their immense pride in their husband/father/grandfather/uncle, and the amazing work that the unit performed during the war—and about which they weren’t allowed to speak for 50 years! Many of the Ghost Army veterans took their secret to their graves, and their families did not find out about their service until after their deaths. And, of course, I’m so proud of my brother’s work on the Ghost Army over the past 19 years—from the inspiration, to the film, to the book, to the Gold Medal. He was so doggedly committed to making this happen!”

The formal Congressional presentation was followed by an elegant luncheon at the Visitors’ Center at the Capitol, and later that evening by a gala dinner and celebration at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA—headquarters for the three-day event. At the evening ceremony, bronze replicas of the medal were officially presented to the Ghost Army veterans’ family members who attended.

Gold Medals presentation ready

(Little known fact—there is only one Gold Medal for any group recipient like the Ghost Army—and it is housed at the Smithsonian. Individuals receive bronze replicas which must be paid for. In this case, the Ghost Army Legacy Project purchased the medals for the surviving veterans; individual family members who wished medals were able to order them in advance and receive them at the ceremony.)

Cathy reports that “one of the most moving aspects of being with these family members over three days was in watching their joy and excitement at meeting other veterans’ families, and feeling themselves to be part of a bigger family. So many of them had felt isolated by the secrecy surrounding their veteran’s work, and it was so wonderful to see them sharing photographs and stories and email addresses with each other.”

Three surviving veterans: Veterans John Christman, Seymour Nussenbaum, and Bernard Bluestein

Cathy has spent the past four years researching and writing biographies of the men of the Ghost Army for the Ghost Army website ghostarmy.org; to date she has completed 440 of them. “I met so many people in DC that I had exchanged emails with—it was great to put a face with a name. One veteran’s family brought me a thumb drive with dozens of individual photographs of men in the unit when they noticed that many of the records in the database did not have photographs. Others contacted me or Rick afterwards to find out how they could get a biography of their veteran on the site, so I’m now busy with a backlog of biographies to write!”

The event was streamed live on cspan.org, and covered that day by all of the major news networks on their evening shows, and by major articles in the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, and other publications.

A phalanx of cameras.  This is what it looked like from the stage! The event was covered by numerous national and international outlets.

For those who are interested in the design details of the medal (which was designed by a Brigham Young University artist and faculty member), here is a two-minute video which tells the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq_zzLi3NPs&list=TLGGPwXYALKrjjQwNDA0MjAyNA&t=1s

And if you’d like to watch the hour-long Gold Medal Ceremony, which was televised live on cspan.org, you can find it here:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?534404-1/wwii-ghost-army-receives-congressional-gold-medal

A sketch at dinner: Many of the men in the Ghost Army were artists, recruited for their ability to visualize and enact camouflage. And many of those men's children are artists as well Veteran Bill Sayles' son, Michael Sayles, brought his sketching/painting materials with him, and painted this image of the dinner--during dinner! (Note the Gold Medal and Ghost Army pin in the foreground.) 

Rick and Cathy: Conducting vital Ghost Army business, undoubtedly!