Pfcs. Preston Toledo and Frank Toledo, both Navajo Code Talkers and cousins, relay orders in the Navajo language on a field radio. They were attached to a Marine artillery regiment in the South Pacific. This photo was taken July 7, 1943. Courtesy Photo
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(November 4, 2011) - Despite punishment for speaking their own
language in government boarding schools and not having voting rights
in their own states, approximately 400 Americans became their
nation's secret weapon during World War II – the Navajo Code
Talkers.
Today, most people in the United States have heard
about code talkers in passing conversations, but few have looked
into the history of the code talkers.
“It's important to know
this piece of history because it had such a profound impact on World
War II and it's something we can all be proud of,” said Chief
Warrant Officer 4 John Hawthorne III, who has researched the Navajo
Code Talkers' training at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.
“[American Indians] are just one of those pieces that make up the
American mosaic. It's not just their history – it's my history –
it's American history.”
The Navajo Code Talkers were part of
a classified program that began with Philip Johnston. The son of a
Presbyterian missionary to the Navajos, he was one of the few
outsiders at the time who spoke the unwritten |
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Navajo language. Johnston, a veteran, was familiar with the
military's small- scale use of American Indian languages during
World War I. |
In early 1942, Johnston met with Maj. James E. Jones, the
force communications officer at Camp Elliot – modern MCAS
Miramar, and proposed using the Navajo language as a
military code because it was difficult to learn without
exposure at a young age and incomprehensible to non-Navajo
speakers.
On Feb. 28, 1942, four Navajos
demonstrated their capabilities to encode, transmit and
decode a message in 20 seconds during a field test at Camp
Elliot. Maj. Gen. Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding general
of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, was impressed by the
demonstration and asked the commandant of the Marine Corps
to approve the program.
“The demonstration was
interesting and successful,” wrote Vogel in his letter to
the commandant March 6, 1942. “Mr. Johnston stated that the
Navaho* is the only tribe in the United States that has not
been infested with German students during the past twenty
years. These Germans, studying the various tribal dialects
under the guise of art students, anthropologists, etc., have
undoubtedly attained a good working knowledge of all tribal
dialects except Navaho. For this reason the Navaho is the
only tribe available offering complete security for the type
of work under consideration ... It should also be noted the
Navaho tribal dialect is completely unintelligible to all
other tribes and all other people, with the possible
exception of as many as 28 Americans who have made a study
of the dialect. This dialect is thus equivalent to a secret
code to the enemy, and admirably suited for rapid, secure
communication.”
The Marine Corps recruited 29 Navajo
men during the next two months and on May 4, 1942, the
recruits left Fort Defiance, Ariz., for basic training in
San Diego. All 29 Navajos, who made up their own platoon,
graduated basic training.
Following their
graduation, the Marines marched directly to Fleet Marine
Force Training Center at Camp Elliot where they received
courses on transmitting messages and radio operations.
During their time at Camp Elliot, the 29 Navajo Marines
constructed the code, which consisted of an alphabet and
accurate replacement phrases for military terms. The
alphabet used words to represent letters, such as “wol-la-chee,”
or ant, for the letter A, and “dzeh,” or elk, for the letter
E. For military terms, they used replacements such as
“da-ha-tih-hi,” or humming bird, for a fighter plane, and “gini,”
or chicken hawk, for dive bomber. The Navajos' creation
contained 211 replacement terms and phrases. Any military
phrases that didn't have replacements were spelled out.
The Navajo Code Talkers had their first field test in
July 1942. The Coast Guard mistakenly picked up on a
transmission and reported it as strange and possibly
hostile.
After completing their training, the
original 29 code talkers were assigned to several divisions
bound for the South Pacific. A few remained at the school,
which was later moved to Camp Pendleton, Calif., to train
incoming Navajo Marines.
After reporting to their
units, the code talkers saw action on several South Pacific
islands including Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Saipan, Guam,
Palau and Okinawa. One of the most important and bloodiest
battles of the South Pacific, Iwo Jima, was one of the code
talkers' finest examples of proficiency. During the battle,
six Navajo Code Talkers sent more than 800 messages without
error.
“Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines
would never have taken Iwo Jima,” said Maj. Howard Connor,
the 5th Marine Division signal officer for whom the six
Navajo Code Talkers worked during the first 48 hours of
battle.
While serving overseas, the Navajos had to
constantly update their code to prevent repetitiveness and
frequently used words from being discovered by the Japanese.
Commonly used letters, such as E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D,
L and U, had several alternative words. Overall, the code
grew to more than 400 phrases and words for the code talkers
to memorize.
“My weapon was my language,” said the
late former Navajo Code Talker Joe Morris Sr. in a San
Bernardino park on Veterans Day in 2004. “We saved a lot of
lives.”
Following WWII's end, the code talkers were
ordered to keep the code a secret in case America needed to
use the code again – which it did on a small scale in the
Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
The code talkers
remained silent about their time as Marines until 1968 when
the code was declassified. Recognition came later when
former President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation of the
first National Navajo Code Talkers Day on Aug. 14, 1982.
“The Navaho Nation, when called upon to serve the United
States, contributed a precious commodity never before used
in this way. In the midst of the fighting in the Pacific
during World War II, a gallant group of men from the Navaho
Nation utilized their language in coded form to help speed
the Allied victory,” said Reagan in his proclamation.
“Equipped with the only foolproof, unbreakable code in the
history of warfare, the code talkers confused the enemy with
an earful of sounds never before heard by code experts. The
dedication and unswerving devotion to duty shown by the men
of the Navaho Nation in serving as radio code talkers in the
Marine Corps during World War II should serve as a fine
example for all Americans.”
On July 26, 2001, four
of the five living 29 code talkers received the
Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian
award, from former President George W. Bush. The other 25
code talkers' families received the medals in their places.
Navajos who became code talkers later in the war received
the Congressional Silver Medal. The medals featured two
Navajo Code Talkers speaking on a radio to reflect their
achievement.
“It is indeed an honor to be here today
before you representing my fellow distinguished Navajo Code
Talkers,” said the late John Brown Jr. during the
Congressional Gold Medal presentation at the U.S. Capitol
Rotunda. “We must never forget that these such events are
made possible only by the ultimate sacrifice of thousands of
American men and women who, I am certain, are watching us
now ... [Of] the original 29 code talkers, there are just five
of us that live today: Chester Nez, Lloyd Oliver, Allen Dale
June, Joe Palmer and myself. We have seen much in our lives.
We have experienced war and peace. We know the value of
freedom and democracy that this great nation embodies. But
our experience has also shown us how fragile these things
can be and how we must stay ever vigilant to protect them,
as code talkers, as Marines. We did our part to protect
these values.”
Today, only 90-year-old Chester Nez
remains of the original code talkers. Overall, it is
estimated that less than 70 code talkers are still alive.
The Navajo Code Talkers honorably served their
country during a time when they did not even have the right
to participate in Arizona or New Mexico state elections.
They stood for honor, courage, commitment and the American
dream that all men have the right to live free.
*Navaho is a common spelling for
the tribe in historic documents.
More photos available in frame below
By USMC Cpl. Alexandra Vazquez
Marine Corps Air Station Miramar
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2011
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