- Joined
- Mar 18, 2011
- Messages
- 13,663
- Reaction score
- 4,633
- Location
- Fla
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
Alot of people many not know the role that the American Indians played in WW2 creating code that saved many a GIs life....Navajo language is almost impossible for a non Navajo to learn...thats why it was so valuable as Military code.
Chester Nez was barely out of his teens when he joined the Marines in a role that would help the United States and its allies win World War II, a role that stayed secret for decades.
Nez was one of 29 members of the Navajo tribe that developed a military communications code based on the Navajo language. It was that same language that Nez and his friends were forbidden to speak when they were students at government-run boarding schools for Native American children.
Military authorities chose Navajo as a code language because it was almost impossible for a non-Navajo to learn and had no written form. It was the only code the Japanese never managed to crack. The code talkers themselves were forbidden from telling anyone about it - not their fellow Marines, not their families - until it was declassified in 1968.
A Navajo Code Talker in his own words - In America - CNN.com Blogs
Chester Nez was barely out of his teens when he joined the Marines in a role that would help the United States and its allies win World War II, a role that stayed secret for decades.
Nez was one of 29 members of the Navajo tribe that developed a military communications code based on the Navajo language. It was that same language that Nez and his friends were forbidden to speak when they were students at government-run boarding schools for Native American children.
Military authorities chose Navajo as a code language because it was almost impossible for a non-Navajo to learn and had no written form. It was the only code the Japanese never managed to crack. The code talkers themselves were forbidden from telling anyone about it - not their fellow Marines, not their families - until it was declassified in 1968.
A Navajo Code Talker in his own words - In America - CNN.com Blogs
