bobdina
07-30-2009, 02:56 PM
Navajo code talkers During World War II, more than 400 Navajos serving with the Corps transmitted vital communications throughout the Pacific theater using a code known only to them. It stymied the Japanese and was never broken. Maj. Howard Connor, a signal officer from the 5th Marine Division, said, “Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.” On July 31, the Navajo Code Talkers Association will dedicate 200 acres outside Gallup, N.M., for the future Navajo Code Talker Museum and Veterans Center. Mean while, a traveling exhibit of photos and oral histories and a full-length documentary is at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson through Aug. 15. What you should know about these elite Marines:
Started small. The Code Talkers “were used at every level — from reconnaissance to the battlefield, to the shelling from the ships and troop movements on the ground,” said historian Zonnie Gorman, whose father, the late Carl Gorman, was among the first 29 Navajos the Corps selected for this mission. Gorman and her students at Wingate High School near Gallup created the Code Talkers exhibit, which opened in 2001.
Why them? Other Indian languages were used as code by U.S. forces, but the Corps used only the Navajo’s, Gorman said. Their language was extremely hard to learn if not spoken from childhood.
“These men were not just talking their language and substituting words,” she said. “It was coded.
Even a fluent Navajo speaker could not understand it. … The Marine Corps gave them a list of words, military terminology, ranks of officers and names of countries. The list also included the English alphabet. Then they were left to their own devices to come up with a code.”
How they did it. Their training was rigorous, with basic Morse code and other communication skills taught in the mornings. In the afternoons, military police escorted the 29 to a room and removed the code from a safe. The MPs would wait outside while the men worked. These sessions lasted two or three hours at a time for four to six weeks.
They went everywhere. After training, the men were sent to Guadalcanal, where they put the code to use in combat. It was a huge success, and soon more Navajos were recruited. Eventually, the Code Talkers served in all six Marine divisions and took part in every assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945.
Kept secret for decades. They went home after the war, but not until 1968 would their achievement be recognized when the code was declassified. In 2001, the 29 initial Code Talkers — or their survivors — were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony in Washington. Today, only a handful of those men survive.
Marine Corps times Printed edition
Started small. The Code Talkers “were used at every level — from reconnaissance to the battlefield, to the shelling from the ships and troop movements on the ground,” said historian Zonnie Gorman, whose father, the late Carl Gorman, was among the first 29 Navajos the Corps selected for this mission. Gorman and her students at Wingate High School near Gallup created the Code Talkers exhibit, which opened in 2001.
Why them? Other Indian languages were used as code by U.S. forces, but the Corps used only the Navajo’s, Gorman said. Their language was extremely hard to learn if not spoken from childhood.
“These men were not just talking their language and substituting words,” she said. “It was coded.
Even a fluent Navajo speaker could not understand it. … The Marine Corps gave them a list of words, military terminology, ranks of officers and names of countries. The list also included the English alphabet. Then they were left to their own devices to come up with a code.”
How they did it. Their training was rigorous, with basic Morse code and other communication skills taught in the mornings. In the afternoons, military police escorted the 29 to a room and removed the code from a safe. The MPs would wait outside while the men worked. These sessions lasted two or three hours at a time for four to six weeks.
They went everywhere. After training, the men were sent to Guadalcanal, where they put the code to use in combat. It was a huge success, and soon more Navajos were recruited. Eventually, the Code Talkers served in all six Marine divisions and took part in every assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945.
Kept secret for decades. They went home after the war, but not until 1968 would their achievement be recognized when the code was declassified. In 2001, the 29 initial Code Talkers — or their survivors — were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony in Washington. Today, only a handful of those men survive.
Marine Corps times Printed edition