Chester Nez, Navajo Code Talker

He has written his autobiography with Judith Scheiss Avila:

"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."

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2011...avajo-code-talker-in-his-own-words/?hpt=hp_c1

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Talker-M...4237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322865928&sr=8-1

 

My wife never knew it but she attended high school where a code talker was the principal of the school. Not until a 20 year re-union did we learn he had been a code talker. I always marvel at how much pressure there must have been to get things correct for sending messages when their original language did not have words for so many of the implements of war. Confidently committed to memory were those "code words" in Navajo by each of them and they made the whole thing work protecting the intelligence and tactics of our troops, who were so dependent on them for safety. I think we as a country owe them so much, as we do all our veterans who performed their skills for us as a country.

 

I have nothing but respect for those guys. Don't know much about their story (other than what was in "Windtalkers", which, being a Bollockswood production, I take with an enormous grain of salt), so I'm glad this book came out. Its now on my Amazon list!

 

I saw "Windtalkers" a few weeks ago. I didn't know about it. Pretty good movie though. I'll have to read up on that some. I wonder how many Navajo were in the marines?

 

Not a terribly bad film, Cage is mis-cast in my opinion. Better suited to action romps like National Treasure. Still the film tries to present the code talkers to an audience not familiar with them and that is a plus.