Navajo Code Talkers Flummoxed the Japanese
SBINSIDER REPORTING| November 16th, 2024
The SaddleBrooke Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) sponsored Terry Caldwell speaking on the Navajo Code Talkers, November 13. There may be three Navajo Code Talkers left of the 400 men who served as code talkers in WWII. Native American men volunteered in the largest numbers in proportion to their population.
In WWI, 17,000 Native Americans enlisted or were drafted. In WWI men who spoke Choctaw assisted the American Expeditionary Force. Philip Johnston, the son of a Presbyterian Missionary to the Navajo proposed the idea of using Navajo code talkers.
Navajo had the criteria needed for a code language. Navajo was an unwritten language, had no alphabet, used no symbols and had extreme complexity. It was only spoken on the reservation. In 1942, Marine recruiters enlisted 29 Navajo, aged 17 to 32. This original group of code talkers went to basic training in San Diego where they learned to encode, send, receive, decode, and translate both Navajo and English. Four months later they were on Guadalcanal serving their country. It was the only unbroken code in modern military history.
There were 200 Navajo Code Talkers on Iwo Jima. Many code talkers had other roles in the military including snipers and scouts. Ronald Reagan made August 14th National Code Talkers Day.
