Navajo Nation honors Code talker

Sad to hear of his passing as so few are left from this service group. http://navajotimes.com/news/2014/0514/051314codetalker.php#.U3K3iXYk-So

 

A little story expanding on some of the sadness perhaps.....my wife attended reservation schools and is a Dutch girl....her final school was in Shiprock the community where the Jones family is present although there are Jones in other places as well who are Navajo (of this same family). At Shiprock High School her principal was a man with the last name "Billy" and we did not know he was a code talker until it was permitted to open up the secret nature of this group so we did finally learn this so many years later at a high school re-union we attended for a 30th re-union where he was invited to attend to be honored by the class membership. It is remarkable that they had to wait so long before their service could be recognized and honored. While attending school no one knew of his incredible service during WWII and I think how chilren might have paid a great deal more attention to a man who could have revealed such a background who was working with the nations most needy children.

 

That's the difficult part of doing a job that is classified. You can't get recognition for it until it is no longer classified.

Here's the text from the obituary link provided by Victor:

Be at peace, Cpl. Jones. :S!

 

TD Tommy you are exactly right about people who do classified jobs. I have a cousin that was awarded medals for his work in Vietnam but he was trained like Gary Powers, well actually he knew Mr. Powers, and spent a lifetime in classified work around the world. He has passed away and there is little to be found out about his service because much of what he did remains classified. He did much more than the work in Vietnam that could be recognized but his surviving relatives have little to tell besides that, about his service. Perhaps someday more of his story will come to light in time. He was fluent in about 8 different languages some of which were Eastern bloc languages so that can leave you imagining what a man with those skills might involve himself in. His name was Medardo Gomez and had a nickname of "Mike" Gomez. He is mentioned on a web page called the "Beaner Banner" which is a group of his type of people. http://www.beanerbanner.org/mk/banner.asp