FReeper Canteen ~ National Navajo Code Talkers Day, August 14th ~ 13 August 2015

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

The FReeper Canteen Presents…..

~ August 14th … National Navajo Code Talkers Day! ~

On July 26, 2001, the original 29 Code Talkers were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush. This long awaited recognition occurred 56 years after World War II despite the fact that the Code saved thousands of lives. The Code had been de-classified in 1968.

Canteen Mission Statement

Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies military
and family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.

The Navajo Code Talkers received no recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968. In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14 "National Navaho Code Talkers Day."

How Great Thou Art ~ Choctaw

During World War II (1939-1945), the U.S. Marines trained Navajo soldiers as code talkers. During military campaigns in the Pacific, the Navajo soldiers relayed secret messages about troop movements and enemy locations in the Navajo language. Because of the complexity of the language, the Japanese were never able to decipher the code.

The idea to use Navajo for secure communications came from Philip Johnston, the son of a missionary to the Navajos and one of the few non-Navajos who spoke their language fluently.

Johnston, reared on the Navajo reservation, was a World War I veteran who knew of the military's search for a code that would withstand all attempts to decipher it. He also knew that Native American languages--notably Choctaw--had been used in World War I to encode messages.

Johnston believed Navajo answered the military requirement for an undecipherable code because Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training.

It has no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest. One estimate indicates that less than 30 non-Navajos could understand the language at the outbreak of World War II.

In May 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Then, at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, this first group created the Navajo code. They developed a dictionary and numerous words for military terms. The dictionary and all code words had to be memorized during training.

Once a Navajo code talker completed his training, he was sent to a Marine unit deployed in the Pacific theater. The code talkers' primary job was to talk, transmitting information on tactics and troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield communications over telephones and radios. They also acted as messengers, and performed general Marine duties.

In this photograph, two Navajo Indians, Corporal Henry Bake, Jr., left, and Private First Class George H. Kirk, operate a portable radio set in a clearing they created in the dense jungle close to the front lines.

Praise for their skill, speed and accuracy accrued throughout the war. At Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, declared, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima." Connor had six Navajo code talkers working around the clock during the first two days of the battle. Those six sent and received over 800 messages, all without error.

The Japanese, who were skilled code breakers, remained baffled by the Navajo language. The Japanese chief of intelligence, Lieutenant General Seizo Arisue, said that while they were able to decipher the codes used by the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps, they never cracked the code used by the Marines.

Cousins, Preston and Frank Toledo - Ballarat, Australia.
The Navajo code talkers even stymied a Navajo soldier taken prisoner at Bataan. (About 20 Navajos served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines.) The Navajo soldier, forced to listen to the jumbled words of talker transmissions, said to a code talker after the war, "I never figured out what you guys who got me into all that trouble were saying."

In a ceremony in the Capitol on July 26, 2001, the original twenty-nine Navajo "code talkers" received the Congressional Gold Medal, and subsequent code talkers received the Congressional Silver Medal.

It is the only unbroken code in modern military history. It baffled the Japanese forces of WWII. In fact, during test evaluations, Marine cryptologists said they couldn't even transcribe the language, much less decode it.

Click for more.

Chester Nez, the last original Navajo Code Talker, dies at 93.

012321 ~ 060414

RIP

Please remember that The Canteen is here to support
and entertain our troops and veterans and their families,
and is family friendly.

[luvie]

Wonderful thread, Kathy! They were wonderful heroes! I admire them and what they did for America so much!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Pro...second eye tomorrow morning.

Did you and Zach shoot well? Have fun?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Sand...((HUGS))...a Maddi and Charlie day?

Did you go for a walk?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))...did you and Lynn-Dah get your early morning walk in? Evening walk?

Mom update?

[ConorMacNessa]

Funny you should ask that, Kathy - the computers are about the same - both Dell Inspirons with Windows 7 Professional. The software used in both projects - and apparently in most these days - is "Relativity." In a word, it sucks, although the IT people at this agency are light years ahead of those at the last agency. Still, the software crashes regularly.

As a wise man once said, work is Hell!

"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre / mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."
"Thought must be the harder, heart be the keener / mind must be the greater, as our might lessens."

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Semper Mark...hope your day went well.

Wednesday is print paychecks day...busy, busy, busy! But we made it.

[left that other site]

I talked to my sister, and mom is doing better. They brought in the 2 year old twin great grandsons to visit with her, and that really made her happy.

She doesn’t like the food, says it’s boring.

That’s my Mom! :-)

[GOPJ]

We might be speaking German if it weren’t for these men...

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Ms Feather...*hugs*...I get my other eye fixed in the morning. Hoping for more success.

Did you get some porch time today?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Janey...((HUGS))...at the InterContinental Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta.

Having fun?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, henkster...glad you enjoyed it.

Have a great day!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, mountainlion....the Code Talkers sure did a good job!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Welcome to the Canteen, proud American in Canada.

It is an extraordinary story about some extraordinary men.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Luv...how different the war might have been without these heroes.

[SandRat]

[Kathy in Alaska]

One would think....

Crashes are wasted time. At least you have good IT guys now.

[PROCON]

Glad to see you getting the last eye done, your eyes will be young again!

Zach came over and we ate breakfast here and just hung out here; it was triple digits today and we decided to stay cool instead.

Many range activities are in the future though.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Visiting little people must have been a good pick-me-up.

Complaining about the food...a good sign maybe?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Welcome to the Canteen, GOPJ....a lot of things might have been different without them and their skills.