320th Barrage Balloon Battalion Gold Medal Act

This bill, titled the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion Gold Medal Act, would authorize Congress to award a single Congressional Gold Medal to the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, collectively, in recognition of their extraordinary heroism and life-saving actions during the D-Day invasion and their important contributions to the Allied victory in World War II. The bill sets out how the medal would be designed, presented, and displayed: the Treasury Department would strike the medal, in consultation with the Department of Defense; the Smithsonian Institution would receive the medal for display and research, with a sense of Congress that it should be displayed at appropriate sites connected to D-Day, World War II, and African-American servicemembers. The bill also allows for bronze duplicates to be struck and sold to cover costs, and specifies how the medals are treated for purposes of U.S. law and mint fund accounting. Overall, the bill aims to publicly honor and permanently recognize the battalion’s heroism and the unit’s role as a historically significant African-American military unit. The bill’s findings emphasize the battalion’s formation in 1942, its unique status as the only American barrage balloon unit in France and the first segregated African-American unit to land on D-Day, and notable actions during D-Day including medical and defensive missions and a claimed impact on enemy aircraft. It notes prior commendations and the unit’s eventual path after Normandy. The measure situates the award as a corrective historic recognition within the broader narrative of World War II and African-American military service.