It feels like a script straight out of Hollywood, and in many ways it kind of was, as some of the unsung soldiers of World War II were not soldiers at all.

In fact, they were actors, set designers, fashion designers, sculptors and even artists, all who volunteered to join this team because they wanted to help their country.

What You Need To Know

  • The Ghost Army was a secret unit created to fool and confuse German forces, by making it seem like Allied forces were in one place, when in reality they were in another

  • The unit used visual deception with inflatable tanks, and sound deception by playing recordings of maneuvers and construction, making it seem like an infantry unit was setting up

  • The mission of the unit was classified until 1996, and after 80 years, the unit was honored in Washington with the Congressional Gold Medal

"Dearest Helen, the walls are covered with pictures of the family and a fine looking group of Nazis. They are places full of swastikas and propaganda and strangely enough, religious paraphernalia too," a letter home from one of the members said.

The author is Theodore "Ted" Katz, a nationally known artist born in Syracuse in 1914.

“He enrolls at Syracuse University in the 1930s, graduates from the College of Fine Arts in 1938," Onondaga Historical Association Curator of History Bob Searing said of Katz.

Ted was one of the artists that would make up this brand new, very secretive Army unit.

"In 1942, his painting, called 'Volunteers,' is selected to hang in the National Gallery to honor the volunteers for the war effort," Searing said, adding that it was likely that painting that put Katz on the Army’s map.

The story of the Ghost Army is not a long one, but it is unbelievable.

"The Army has no real idea of what it's doing with deception. They don't have any doctrines. They don't have a manual for it. They're making it up as they go along," Ghost Army Legacy Project Board Member Rick Beyer said.

In 1944, some 1,300 people, those artists and designers, arrive at various posts throughout the country, including Pine Camp, now known as Fort Drum, for training.

"Instead of hiding something, we're trying where we're with. It's really there. We're trying to make it seem like something is there that's really not there," Beyer added.

Officially named the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, the Ghost Army was broken up into four groups, utilizing four tactics. The first being that visual deception.

"All the equipment, trucks and guns and big guns and tanks," Ghost Army member Bernie Bluestein said about camouflage training.

Another, which was taught on Pine Camp, was sonic deception. That’s the use of recordings of maneuvers and construction to fool the Germans into thinking that American troops, the actual American troops, were where they weren't.

"Not sounds of battle, but sounds of troops on the move, tanks moving in, trucks moving in," Beyer said.

There were also staged radio calls, fake information for the Germans to intercept, as well as members walking into bars and pretending to have had one too many and spouting off their mouths.

"I got a kick out of that, I’d say something that sounds crazy, but they believe it," Ghost Army member John Christman added.

However, when everything around you is fake, so are your defenses. Except for a few guns, these units were unarmed. One real attack from the Germans would have wiped out everyone in minutes.

"If we did it wrong, we were in trouble. You might not come back," Christman added.

But for these soldiers, just about everything went right.

In all, they conducted 22 different deception operations. From the Battle of the Bulge, holding lines for General George Patton to impersonating 30,000 troops at the Rhine River. This unit’s efforts helped lead to the end of the war, and victory.

"It was all a big success and they never figured it out," Christman added.

It was a critical point, because the U.S. knew the Russian threat was not that far off. So much so that this story, the mission, stayed classified for decades. No one could talk about it, not even to family.

"General Eisenhower said 'any man that gives this secret up, I’ll personally make sure he’s hung,' " Christman added.

However, with changes in modern warfare, his mission was declassified in 1996, and a new mission began. This one was meant to ensure that these 1,300 heroes would be honored.

"I’m astonished that it's actually happening," Beyer said of a special event held in Washington, D.C.

Only seven members of this ghost army are still alive today, and three of them made the trip earlier this month to the U.S. Capitol to be honored. The unit was given the Congressional Gold Medal.

"Even if we saved the life of one man, that would have been an accomplishment," Bluestein said about estimates that the number of lives saved by this unit could have reached 30,000.

This story will now live on forever, thanks to the Ghost Army Legacy Project, which worked to get everyone to the ceremony, and the drawings, the paintings and the letters that these artists brought back home.

"Dearest Helen, someday I'll tell you about this phase of my Army career and by then I'll find it hard to convince myself that it happened. But, all I have to do is remember the things that are in store for me. And I can stand anything,” Katz wrote in a letter at the end of the war, one of 90 or so of his that is featured on the Ghost Army Legacy Project website, which also has a number of his photos and drawings.