Sen. Markey, NH Lawmaker Push for Congressional Gold Medal for ‘Ghost Army’

Former Medford Mayor Jack McGlynn Was Member of Top-Secret World War II Unit

– Allison Goldsberry

US Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and US Representative Annie Kuster of New Hampshire have introduced bills to recognize the efforts of a secretive unit in World War II with a Congressional Gold Medal, according to The Boston Globe.

The unit, known as the “Ghost Army,” used acting, sound effects, and other deceptive acts to fool the German opposition forces into thinking the Allied forces were much larger. Using rubber tanks, sound effects, phony radio transmissions and even playacting, Ghost Army members risked their lives and well-being by using deception and “special effects” as its weapons. From June 1944 to March 1945, beginning in Normandy and ending along the Rhine River, over 20 missions were carried out to deal with a specific battlefield situation, each with its own carefully scripted scenario designed to play on the fears and expectations of the enemy.

Former Medford Mayor Jack McGlynn, father of recently retired Mayor Michael McGlynn, was a member of the Ghost Army, specifically working in the sonic division that played recorded battlefield noises from gigantic speakers to fool enemy troops.

“I didn’t do it to gain any gold medal,” Jack McGlynn, 94, told The Boston Globe. “My actions were to protect the United States of America and its families.”

“This is something that should happen to recognize the efforts of those brave veterans, who, in their own right, have never had any interest in receiving recognition,” Michael McGlynn said to The Globe. “These veterans [had] very little in terms of weapons to defend themselves and put themselves out there to distract the enemy.”

In 2013 Rick Beyer produced a documentary about the secretive unit, in which Jack McGlynn appears. Both men are pictured above.

In 2007 McGlynn participated in a series of oral interviews with local veterans coordinated by Tom Convery. Listen to his account of his experiences in the interview below: