August 14 “Navajo Code Talkers Day”

I saw an episode of “Touched by an Angel” that was about code talkers. The show is about angels helping people, and the story with the code talkers made me want to learn more about what they did. These were Native American soldiers who used their own languages to send secret messages during World War II.

The Navajo Code Talkers demonstrated remarkable ingenuity during World War II by creating a secure, efficient code for the U.S. military. Their complex, unwritten language formed the basis of an unbreakable code used by the Marine Corps. Tasked with developing rapid and indecipherable communication, young Navajo men substituted their words for military terms, resulting in messages that could be sent quickly and securely on the battlefield.

The Navajo Code Talkers helped American troops talk to each other safely and fast in the Pacific during the war. They used their language as a secret code, which kept important messages from the enemy and made sure orders could be sent quickly and privately in battles.

During World War I, Native American languages such as Choctaw were used to send secret messages. In World War II, the U.S. realized that Navajo was very hard to understand for outsiders, so they used it for Code Talkers to help keep their messages safe.

In 1942, Philip Johnston saw that the military wanted to make new codes using Native American languages. Johnston grew up on a Navajo reservation because his parents were missionaries, so he learned to speak Navajo well. He even helped translate for a Navajo group in Washington, D.C., when he was nine years old. Johnston thought Navajo would be perfect for making a code that no one could crack.

Even though there were worries about using a Native American language as a code, the U.S. Marine Corps agreed to Johnston’s test project with 30 Navajos and allowed him to be part of the program.

In May 1942, 29 Navajo men (although one left later) went to Camp Elliott near San Diego. Their first job was to make a code based on the Navajo language, which was picked because it doesn’t have a written form and only a few people outside the Navajo know it.

The Marine Corps made the Navajo code even harder to break by using word substitutions. Around 400 Navajo people helped create and use this code during World War II. The code started with 211 terms but grew to 411, and it even had an alphabet system so they could spell words. For example, different kinds of birds stood for different planes, and some letters had more than one Navajo word for extra security. To show how good the code was, the Code Talkers translated a test message in just two and a half minutes — much faster than older methods.

The Code Talkers took part in every major Marine mission in the Pacific. They sent important battle information over phones and radios.

During the invasion of Iwo Jima, six Navajo Code Talkers sent more than 800 messages without making any mistakes. Other marines respected them a lot for their work. Major Howard Connor said that without the Navajos, the Marines would not have been able to capture Iwo Jima.

People only learned about the Navajo Code Talkers’ role after their work was made public in 1968. President Reagan later showed his respect by making “Navajo Code Talkers Day” in 1982. In 2000, Congress gave the original 29 Code Talkers the Congressional Gold Medal, and President Bush handed the medals to those who were still alive in 2001.