shanneba
Professional
In 1982 President Reagan declared August 14 "National Navajo Code Talker Day," to honor their service to the nation.
In 1942 the Marine Corps recruited 29 young Navajo men to serve in the Pacific during World War II.
They developed a way to use their native Diné language as a code to send messages during combat operations —while communicating over telephones and radio.
Since Diné, at the time, was only a spoken language, there was no written alphabet and neither the Japanese Army nor Navy were ever able to crack the code.
From 1942 to 1945, Navajo code talkers participated in every Marine assault in the Pacific. In total there were around 420 Navajo Code Talkers between 18 and 25 years of age. Sixteen were killed in action.
They were able to encode, send and decode a short message in as few as 20 seconds.
During the first two days of the battle of Iwo Jima, over 800 messages were sent and received by six code talkers without making any errors.
Sadly, when they returned home, they were not allowed to tell anyone what they did during the war. There were no celebrations, parades, or ceremonies recognizing their efforts during the war. Their work remained classified until 1968.
In 1942 the Marine Corps recruited 29 young Navajo men to serve in the Pacific during World War II.
They developed a way to use their native Diné language as a code to send messages during combat operations —while communicating over telephones and radio.
Since Diné, at the time, was only a spoken language, there was no written alphabet and neither the Japanese Army nor Navy were ever able to crack the code.
From 1942 to 1945, Navajo code talkers participated in every Marine assault in the Pacific. In total there were around 420 Navajo Code Talkers between 18 and 25 years of age. Sixteen were killed in action.
They were able to encode, send and decode a short message in as few as 20 seconds.
During the first two days of the battle of Iwo Jima, over 800 messages were sent and received by six code talkers without making any errors.
Sadly, when they returned home, they were not allowed to tell anyone what they did during the war. There were no celebrations, parades, or ceremonies recognizing their efforts during the war. Their work remained classified until 1968.
