This Nov. 29, 2009 photo shows Chester Nez talking about his time as a Navajo Code Talker in World War II from his home in Albuquerque, N.M. Only three of the Original 29 Code Talkers survive, and Nez is one of them.
Posted on 08/29/2010 3:37:46 PM PDT by JoeProBono
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) -- Tourists hurry inside a shop here to buy books about the famed Navajo Code Talkers, warriors who used their native language as their primary weapon.
Outside, on a walk sheltered from the sun, nine of the Code Talkers sit at a table autographing the books. Each is an old man now. They wear similar caps and shirts, the scarlet and gold of the Marine Corps, and turquoise jewelry.
One of these men, who signs his name as Cpl. Chester Nez, is distinguished from the others......
This Nov. 29, 2009 photo shows Chester Nez talking about his time as a Navajo Code Talker in World War II from his home in Albuquerque, N.M. Only three of the Original 29 Code Talkers survive, and Nez is one of them.
God Bless them... they served the nation with honor.
“God Bless them... they served the nation with honor.”
X2.
It is a good thing that he was in the Marine Corps, or no one would have ever heard of him and his fellow Indian, radio operators.
I have attended Marine Corps League events with my World War II Marine Corp uncle and have had the priveledge to meet some of the Code Talkers. What an honor.
Long unrecognized because of the continued value of their language as a security classified code, the Navajo code talkers of World War II were honored for their contributions to defense on Sept. 17, 1992, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
You owe that Marine Uncle of yours...
Thank You for posting this wonderful story, Joe.
You can say that again.
A group of young men from the Comanche tribe, mostly from southwestern Oklahoma, did the same type of duty in Europe that the Navajos did in the Pacific. The Comanche Code Talkers communicated in the Comanche language, of course.
They got little publicity.
They made the mistake of being in the Army, I guess.
Ya tahe
We have known about the WWII Marine Corp radio operators who were indian since the 1960s.
I do know that to this day almost no one knows about the US Army Indian Code talkers of WWI, and in WWII, in the Pacific, North Africa, and the European theatres.
Use of Cherokee
“The first known use of Native Americans in the American military to transmit messages under fire was a group of Cherokee troops utilized by the American 30th Infantry Division serving alongside the British during the Second Battle of the Somme. According to the Division Signal Officer, this took place in September 1918. Their outfit was under British command at the time.”
Use of Choctaw
“In the days of World War I, company commander Captain Lawrence of the U. S. Army overheard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb conversing in the Choctaw language. He found eight Choctaw men in the battalion.[3] Eventually, fourteen Choctaw men in the Army’s 36th Infantry Division trained to use their language in code. They helped the American Expeditionary Force win several key battles in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign in France, during the final big German push of the war. Within 24 hours after the Choctaw language was pressed into service, the tide of the battle had turned. In less than 72 hours the Germans were retreating and the Allies were in full attack.
These solders are now known as the Choctaw Code Talkers.”
Use of Comanche
“Adolf Hitler knew about the successful use of code talkers during World War I. He sent a team of some thirty anthropologists to learn Native American languages before the outbreak of World War II. However, it proved too difficult for them to learn the many languages and dialects that existed. Because of Nazi German anthropologists’ attempts to learn the languages, the U.S. Army did not implement a large-scale code talker program in the European Theater. Fourteen Comanche code talkers took part in the Invasion of Normandy, and continued to serve in the 4th Infantry Division during further European operations.”
Use of Meskwaki
“Meskwaki men used their language against the Germans in North Africa. Twenty-seven Meskwaki, then 16% of Iowa’s Meskwaki population, enlisted in the U.S. Army together in January 1941”
I should have pinged you to post 11.
In 1917, Choctaw Indians were not citizens of the United States. The language the Choctaws spoke was considered obsolete. That same language later helped bring about a successful end to the first World War Of more than 10,000 Native Americans serving in WWI, a number of Choctaw soldiers “confounded German eavesdroppers”.
Unfortunately, no one can decipher the story...
/rimshot
But seriously, job very well done.
They rented a room from my grandparents for the summer. and I stayed with my grandparents most of that summer. I really liked the couple, particularly the lady (she was charming).
They busied themselves daily with going around the dusty roads of that area, meeting with various Comanches and recording the Comanche language phonetically (pre-tape recorders). At night, the man spent time trying to teach my grandfather German.
At the end of that summer they went back to New York, promising to be back the next summer on the same mission.
My grandparents eventually got word from the FBI that the couple had been arrested.
They were part of Hitler's anthropologists sent to record various Indian languages.
I never knew that about the use of Cherokee, Choctow, Comanche and Meskwaki Code Talkers! That’s awesome, and quite ironic, considering the fact that there was big push in the early part of the 20th century to ‘modernize’ the Indians, and have them stop using their language. Good thing THAT failed, huh?
That’s fascinating.
In a pinch, the Cajuns of Louisiana could have been used as well.
“They were part of Hitler’s anthropologists sent to record various Indian languages.”
Wow!
Not really, people forget that being a radio operator and using code is a common job in the military, not having a handfull of men of Indian ancestry doing it in a rare language, was not something that American success in WWII was dependent on.
For instance the 4th Division had a few, but no other Division did, they all got by though with their regular, GI issue, white, unsung radio operators and code talkers.
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