In Mr Baer’s documentary, Mr Seltzer recalled his initial reaction, saying that the purpose of preparations for the 23rd was for the enemy to open fire on him and his fellow soldiers.
“We came to the conclusion,” he said, “that it was a suicidal organization.”
Mr Baer said three members of the Ghost Army were killed and about 30 were injured. He suggested two reasons for the relatively low number of casualties: the unit assumed great force through its deception, possibly repelling the enemy; And the soldiers were not always at the front, which reduced their vulnerability.
After the war, Mr Baer returned to architecture. for years he Utica Memorial Auditorium built in Utica, NY (now Adirondack Bank Center), famous for its cable-suspended roof system; West Point and the US Merchant Marine Academy buildings; and this east coast monument In Battery Park, in Lower Manhattan, which honors soldiers, sailors, Marines, Coast Guards, merchant sailors and airmen who died in combat in the Atlantic during World War II. He continued to work till January 2020.
In addition to his son, Mr. Seltzer is survived by two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Molly (Gold) Seltzer, died in 1994.
One night in July 1944, 603 Army soldiers were in a field in Normandy, where they moved an anti-aircraft battery and replaced it with a rubber one, covering the movement of the 2nd Armored Division with dummy tanks and guns Gaya. To be a part of the operation. The Germans were fooled into thinking that the division had not left.
The farmer, enraged by the noise of the original guns, approached the soldiers and said, “Encore boom boom?
“His hand jumped up and down and he said, ‘Boom boom ha ha,'” Mr. Seltzer told Mr. Baer in an interview filmed for the documentary but not used. “That became a byword in the 603rd.”