David Cantrell, son of John Cantrell and U.S. Senator Chuck GrassleyPhoto: U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley's Office
(WASHINGTON D.C.) A Des Moines veteran is being honored posthumously with the Congressional Medal of Honor. John T. Cantrell was a member of a special unit of soldiers in World War Two, who came to be known as the Ghost Army. Rick Byer, Ghost Legacy Project, based in Chicago, IL says the soldiers used inflatable tanks, sound effects, and radio trickery to mislead the Nazis. The soldiers were sworn to secrecy. Their work was recently declassified by the U-S Army.
Cantrell, who enlisted right out of high school, became a radio operator. According to the Ghost Legacy Project website, Cantrell made a promise to serve God if he survived the war, and spent 20-years teaching Sunday School. Cantrell married and had three sons. He worked for 37 years for the Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation in Des Moines. He also continued using his radio skills, as a ham operator. He died in 1990.
According to his son, his family did not find out about his Ghost Army experience until after John's death, when they found the diary he had kept in boot camp, as well as letters to and from loved ones.