Navajo Code Talker Dies (God bless these heroes who helped save our nation)

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., today conveyed his condolences to the family of the late Navajo Code Talker and Navajo Tribal Councilman John Brown, Jr., of Crystal, N.M., who died this morning at home. He was 88.

“Today, with sadness, we heard of the passing of Mr. John Brown, Jr., one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers and one of the Navajo Nation’s great warriors,” President Shirley said. “For so long, these brave men were the true unsung heroes of World War II, shielding their valiant accomplishments not only from the world but from their own families. The recognition and acknowledgment of their great feats came to them late in life but, for most, not too late. These heroes among us are now a very precious few, and we, as a nation, mourn their loss. We offer our deepest condolences to the family of Mr. John Brown, Jr.”

President Shirley ordered flags on the Navajo Nation to be flown at half-staff beginning May 21 in Mr. Brown’s honor and until after Mr. Brown’s funeral. Funeral arrangements are pending and will be announced. A community meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Crystal Chapter House.

Mr. Brown was born on Dec. 24, 1921, in Chinle, Ariz., near Canyon De Chelly. His mother was the late Nonabah Begay, who passed away at age 102 two years ago. His father was the late John Brown.

Mr. Brown went to school at Chinle Boarding School, and graduated from the Albuquerque Indian School in 1940.

“From there, he remembered Pearl Harbor,” said his son Frank Brown. “He was playing basketball and heard about the bombing. Sometime after that, he remembered a number of Marine recruiters started talking to the young Navajo boys. He ended up going to Fort Wingate, N.M., to the military installation there.”

Mr. Brown said his father recalled being signed up, sworn in and given his physical right then and there.

“They sent him immediately to Camp Pendleton for basic training,” he said. “They weren’t allowed to go home to say goodbye to their family or write letters.”

“At some phase in their basic training, they were taken into one big room and a commandant told them they were all there for a special reason, and they were to devise a code in their language,” Mr. Brown said. “The boys were left there in the room and they didn’t know what they heck to do. But they devised the code using names of animals and mammals to describe what would go with the alphabet.”

The initial code consisted of translations for 211 English words, which was expanded to 411 words, most frequently used in military conversations. Included in the list were terms for officers, terms for airplanes, terms for months, and an extensive general vocabulary. Also included were Navajo equivalents for the English alphabet so that the code talkers could spell out names or specific places.

From 1942 until 1945, Navajo code talkers participated in numerous battles in the Pacific, including Guadalcanal , Iwo Jima, Peleliu, and Tarawa. They not only worked in communications but also as regular soldiers.

Mr. Brown said his father served in four major battles at Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Guadalcanal.

On July 26, 2001, Mr. Brown was one of the original 29 Code Talkers presented with the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush. That recognition came 56 years following World War II. The code, based on the Navajo language, was de-classified in 1968.

“It is, indeed, an honor to be here today before you, representing my fellow distinguished Navajo code talkers,” Mr. Brown said at the presentation at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. “Only destiny has demanded my presence here, for we must never forget that these such events are made possible only by the ultimate sacrifice of thousands of American men and women who, I am certain, are watching us now. And yes, it is fitting, too, here in the Capitol Rotunda -- such a historic place, where so many heroes have been honored – I'm proud that the Navajo code talkers today join the ranks of these great Americans. I'd like especially to thank Senator Bingaman and all of work that he has given to make this occasion possible, to recognize the code talkers.

“I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, not to become a code talker – that came later – but to defend the United States of America in the war against the Japanese emperor. My mother was afraid for my safety, so my grandfather told her to take one of my shoes, place an arrowhead in it, take it to the mountain called Two Little Hills, and go there every day to pray that I would remain safe. Maybe she was more successful than she imagined because the Marine Corps soon had the Navajo Marines develop a secret code using our language. My comrade and I volunteered to become Navajo radio operators, or code talkers.

“Our precious and sacred Navajo language was bestowed upon us, not a nation, but a holy people. Our language is older than the Constitution of the United States. I'm proud that, at this point in American History, our native language and the code will developed came to the aid of our country, saving American lives and helping the other U.S. armed forces ultimately to defeat the enemies.

“After the original 29 code talkers, there are just five of us that live today: Chester Nez, Lloyd Oliver, Allen Dale June, Joe Palmer and myself. We have seen much in our lives. We have experienced war and peace. We know the value of freedom and Democracy that this great nation embodies. But our experience has also shown us how fragile these things can be and how we must stay ever vigilant to protect them, as code talkers, as Marines.

We did our part to protect these values. It is my hope that our young people will carry on this honorable tradition as long as the grass shall grow and water shall flow. Maybe Japan is listening.

“Mr. President, we four original code talkers present this day, including the families of my comrades who aren't able to be here with us, are honored to be here to receive this award. Thank you,” Mr. Brown said.

In November 2002, more than 200 of the subsequent Code Talkers received the Congressional Silver Medal at Window Rock, Ariz.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon awarded Navajo Code Talkers a special certificate in thanks for their patriotism, resourcefulness, and courage. They were included in the July 4, 1976, Bicentennial Parade in Washington, D.C.

In May of 1982, the U. S. Senate passed a bill declaring August 14 National Code Talkers Day.

Mr. Brown said his father lived a hard life, first training as a welder, then becoming a journeyman and master carpenter and cabinetmaker.

He entered politics in 1962 as a member of the Navajo Tribal Council – then called a councilman – and served until 1982. Afterward, he served three terms as Crystal Chapter president.

“He was always active in politics,” his son Mr. Brown said. “He was a wonderful speaker.”

After politics, he began a second career as a traditional counselor for the Navajo Nation Division of Social Services, driving 130 miles round trip to Chinle each day to work.

After that, he went on a lecture tour speaking about the Navajo Code Talkers around the country and becoming active in the Navajo Code Talkers Association, Mr. Brown said.

“Dad was also a traditional practitioner, constantly learning the traditional way of life but at the same time he was always active in the Mormon Church,” Mr. Brown said.

John Brown, Jr., is survived by his wife Loncie Polacca Brown and his children Dorothy Whilden, Preston Brown, Everett Brown, Virgil Brown and Frank Brown. His other children were the late Dale Brown and the late Ruth Ann McComb.

Skip to comments.FReeper Canteen ~ National Navajo Code Talkers Day ~ 12 August 08
Serving The Best Troops And Veterans In The World | The Canteen Crew

Posted on 08/11/2008 6:00:39 PM PDT by Kathy in Alaska

The FReeper Canteen Presents
National Navajo Code Talkers Day

Thank you to all of our Troops, Veterans, and their families for allowing us to entertain you!

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 Code Talkers Day."

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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. 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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Thirty-five code talkers, all veterans of the U.S. Marine Corps, attended the dedication of the Navajo code talker exhibit. The exhibit includes a display of photographs, equipment and the original code, along with an explanation of how the code worked.

Dedication ceremonies included speeches by the then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Atwood, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona and Navajo President Peterson Zah. The Navajo veterans and their families traveled to the ceremony from their homes on the Navajo Reservation, which includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

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The Navajo code talker exhibit is a regular stop on the Pentagon tour.

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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.

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

Please remember: The Canteen is a place to honor and entertain our troops. The Canteen is family friendly. Let's have fun!

We pray for your continued strength, to be strong in the face of adversity.

We pray for your safety, that you will return to your families and friends soon.

We pray that your hope, courage, and dignity remain unbroken, so that you may show others the way.

God Bless You All ~ Today, Tomorrow and Always

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