The artist veterans had, in some cases, produced extensive visual records of their service. Men trained in drawing and painting had filled sketchbooks with images of their travels and their work — the landscapes of France and Belgium and Germany, the camps where they slept, the vehicles and equipment they worked with. These personal visual records provided a kind of documentary richness that was unusual among World War II veterans’ accounts.
Beyer’s work, and the broader recovery of the Ghost Army story that it represented, took almost a decade to produce the legislative result that would formally honor the unit. The campaign to secure a Congressional Gold Medal for the 23rd and the 3133rd was supported by family members of veterans and by the public recognition that Beyer’s documentary and book had generated.
## Congressional Gold Medal
The Congressional Gold Medal is Congress’s highest civilian award, presented to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the United States. It has been awarded to figures ranging from George Washington to the Tuskegee Airmen, and it represents formal national recognition of extraordinary service.
The bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and the 3133rd Signal Service Company Special was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 — more than seventy-five years after the end of the war these men had served in. The authorization of the medal in 2022 was a formal legislative act; the actual presentation ceremony took place in Washington in March 2024.