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Information towards bottom of our page
Actually they
served in all branches.But, the Marines
credit themselves with originating the code talkers
Here is the speech given by the Senator at the awards ceremony.
See pictures of the ceremony and
more.
(Image
from and links to the US Mint Website)
On
July 26, 2001
The 29 Original Navajo Code Talkers
received (finally!)
the Congressional Medal of Honor!
6 silver medals went to qualified code talkers
(I assume not of Navajo ethnicticity?)
What is the Congressional
Medal of Honor?
The image here is the original created by George Washington on
3/26/1776.
But the award is customized in design per the recipient.
For
information about the Navajo Congressional Award at the Senator's
site, click the medal above.
For more information about the
CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR
(Symbolism, History, etc.) CLICK HERE!!
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The History
To
the left are links which provide detailed information on the service to
our country by the Navajo Code Talkers. Before I attempt to give you a
brief summation, I want to first state that I totally respect
communications since my father was a U.S. Naval Signalman. I also
have helped support satellite communications to the North Pole for
several years (most recently helping Will Steger and his team).
I truly feel
every talent and skill is important; and, a group that proves this is
the Navajo Code Talkers. Why the Navajos? Phillip Johnston, the son of a
missionary to the Navajos and one of a very small group of people who
could speak Navajo (who wasn't a native) had been a WWI
veteran. He knew how important it was to our country to have a
code that could stand up to all attempts to be broken by an enemy. (He
also knew that in WWI the Choctaw Indian language had been used as a
code.) So in 1942 ( a long time before I was born I might add) he
suggested to Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding
general of the Amphibious Corps, to talk them into using the Navajo's
language as code in WWII. Why? (1) It is an unwritten language of
extreme complexity. (2) It's syntax , tonal qualities and dialects
make it extremely baffling to anyone who hasn't been taught it. (3) And,
they
were fast! Johnston did tests showing that the Navajos could encode,
transmit and decode a 3-line message in English in 20 seconds. At that
time, machines took 30 minutes to do the same job. (Trust me,
having done N. Pole messages, speed is of the essence! I can't do it in
20 seconds today. It takes at least that long just to boot the computer. )
In May of 1942,
the first 29 Navajo recruits went off to boot camp (aka Camp Pendleton,
CA) and first got training in Morse code, semaphore, military-style
messages, wire laying, and learning different kinds of radios. After
that, they then created the Navajo code their own
dictionary for their own code, which had to be memorized. And, as they say, the rest
is history.
The Navajo Code
talkers took part in every US Marine assault conducted in the Pacific
between 1942-1945. To quote Major General Howard Connor,
"Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken
Iwo Jima." General Connor alone had 6 Navajo Code talkers
working around the clock during the first 48 hours of battle, sending,
coding, decoding a total of 800 messages, all with NO ERRORS!
(Psst...I've made about 7 errors just typing this up!)
On September
17, 1992 at the Pentagon in Washington, DC 35 veteran Marine Corp code
talkers attended the dedication that was long overdue them.
Click on the link at the left to read the proposal for a Navajo Code
Talkers Memorial.
Who were the 29
Original Navajo Code Talkers? For years they have been one of
our nation's best kept secrets. But their recognition is long
overdue. I am listing all the names below:
They are listed in alphabetical
order (after those still living). The list does not imply any rank,
importance or any other status.
All were great. 1.
John Brown, Jr. (Living)
2. Alan Dale June (Living)
3. Chester Nez (Living)
4. Lloyd Oliver (Living)
5. Joe Palmer (Living)
6. Charlie Y. Begay
7. Roy L. Begay
8. Samuel H. Begay
9. John Ashi Benally
10. Wilsie H. Bitsie
11. Cosey S. Brown
12. John Chee
13. Bejamin Cleveland
14. Eugene R. Crawford
15. David Curley
16. Lowell S. Damon
17. George H. Dennison
18. James Dixon
19. Carl N. Gorman
20. Oscar B. Ilthma
21. Alfred Leonard
22. Johnny R. Manuelito
23. William McCabe
24. Jack Nez
25. Frank Denny Pete
26. Nelson S. Thompson
27. Harry Tsosie
28. John Willie
29. William Dean Wilson
These 29 led the way!
About 540 Navajos served as Marines in 1945. Out of the 540, 375
to 420 were code talkers. The rest served in other areas. All of them volunteered
to serve their country. None were drafted.
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