FReeper Canteen ~ National Navajo Code Talkers Day, August 14 ~ 15 August 2019

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[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.

[Publius]

Sergei Rachmaninov plays “The Star Spangled Banner”

[PROCON]

BUMP, thanks to the Navajo Code Talkers, patriots who helped America win WWII!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Publius, and thank you for Rachmaninov’s “The Star Spangled Banner”.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Pro...did you have a good work day? Ready for your long day?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hello Veterans, wherever you are!!

[The Mayor]

Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list

August 15

Lincoln’s Pockets

Bible in a Year : Psalms 91–93; Romans 15:1–13

Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. Romans 15:2

The night US president Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater in 1865, his pockets contained the following: two spectacles, a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a handkerchief, a leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate bill, and eight newspaper clippings, including several that praised him and his policies.

I wonder what the Confederate money was doing in the president’s pocket, but I have little doubt about the glowing news stories. Everyone needs encouragement, even a great leader like Lincoln! Can you see him, in the moments before the fateful play, perhaps reading them to his wife?

Who do you know who needs encouragement? Everyone! Look around you. There isn’t one person in your line of vision who is as confident as they seem. We’re all one failure, snide comment, or bad hair day away from self-doubt.

What if we all obeyed God’s command to “please our neighbors for their good, to build them up”? (Romans 15:2). What if we determined only to speak “gracious words” that are “sweet to the soul and healing to the bones”? (Proverbs 16:24). What if we wrote these words down, so friends could reread and savor them? Then we’d all have notes in our pockets (or on our phones!). And we’d be more like Jesus, who “did not please himself” but lived for others (Romans 15:3).

By Mike Wittmer

Reflect & Pray

Whose words have most encouraged you? Who might need encouragement that you’ve been overlooking?

Loving God, help me to encourage others with my words, actions, and presence.

 

[mountainlion]

My uncle told me about these guys before 1968. It is amazing how a fairly simple method held up against a couple Armies.

It could be snowing in a couple weeks. Things are turning brown so Summer is shutting down.

[left that other site]

Hi Everybody!

((((HUGS))))

[PROCON]

Hi Kathy, good work day but it was my Monday so it took awhile to get-a-going, LOL.

My long day tomorrow actually is easier than today's 'Monday' for some reason.

Have you cooled down?

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ National Navajo Code Talkers Day, August 14 ~

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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.

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[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul. We made it past hump day...and the weekend looms ahead.

Is your back doing better? Keep resting!

[Kathy in Alaska]

They were amazing for sure.

Winter? Too soon. We are still warm to HOT and very little rain.

[SkyDancer]

Hai Kathy! (((HUGS))) Hanging in Cleveland RON - yuck.

[radu]

Greetings to all at the Canteen!

To all our military men and women, past and present,

THANK YOU
for your service!

One of the highlights of my life - - meeting Thomas Begay. Such a sweet, very humble gentleman.

[luvie]

it’s always good to honor these brave heroes!

[PROCON]

Hiya radu!

What a great picture of you and Mr. Begay!

Back in the days of WWII, ALL Americans came to the defense of their country.

It's sad that we're so divided now.

I despise the mainstream media and their useful idiots!!! Grrrrr.

[luvie]

How cool is that!!

I’m home now. Ahhhhhh............

[bobbys]

Dad was in the 20th marines, 4th marine division, 121 seabees,saipan, he was jumping from fox hole to foxhole when he jumped into one with the code talkers their guard shouted, these are our Indian guys. He had no idea what it was about. Later on he built them a quonset hut, they always had a guard, dad said he wished he had a guard, course the guard had orders to shoot them rather then let them be captured.

[radu]

Howdy, PRO!

It was a great moment, getting to meet him. Even better that I didn’t wet my pants. LOL! I was VERY excited to meet such a hero.

All Americans DID come to the defense of the country back then. I don’t see the same thing happening now if another World War broke out. The enemedia are very much to blame.