Navajo code talkers Code talker

page 1 of navajo recommendation letter, 1942



page 2 of navajo recommendation letter, 1942



code talkers monument ocala, florida memorial park

early in 1942, johnston met major general clayton b. vogel, commanding general of amphibious corps, pacific fleet, , staff. johnston staged tests under simulated combat conditions demonstrated navajo men encode, transmit, , decode three-line english message in 20 seconds, versus 30 minutes required machines @ time. idea accepted, vogel recommending marines recruit 200 navajo. first 29 navajo recruits attended boot camp in may 1942. first group created navajo code @ camp pendleton, oceanside, california.

the navajo code formally developed , modeled on joint army/navy phonetic alphabet uses agreed-upon english words represent letters. navajo code talkers marines. determined phonetically spelling out military terms letter letter words—while in combat—would time-consuming, terms, concepts, tactics , instruments of modern warfare given uniquely formal descriptive nomenclatures in navajo (for example, word shark being used refer destroyer, or silver oak leaf rank of lieutenant colonel). several of these coinages, such gofasters referring running shoes or ink sticks pens, entered marine corps vocabulary. commonly used today refer appropriate objects.

a codebook developed teach many relevant words , concepts new initiates. text classroom purposes only, , never taken field. code talkers memorized these variations , practiced rapid use under stressful conditions during training. uninitiated navajo speakers have no idea code talkers messages meant; hear truncated , disjointed strings of individual, unrelated nouns , verbs.

the navajo code talkers commended skill, speed, , accuracy demonstrated throughout war. @ battle of iwo jima, major howard connor, 5th marine division signal officer, had 6 navajo code talkers working around clock during first 2 days of battle. these 6 sent , received on 800 messages, without error. connor later stated, not navajos, marines never have taken iwo jima.

as war progressed, additional code words added on , incorporated program-wide. in other instances, informal short-cut code words devised particular campaign , not disseminated beyond area of operation. ensure consistent use of code terminologies throughout pacific theater, representative code talkers of each of u.s. marine divisions met in hawaii discuss shortcomings in code, incorporate new terms system, , update codebooks. these representatives in turn trained other code talkers not attend meeting. example, navajo word buzzard, jeeshóóʼ, used bomber, while code word used submarine, béésh łóóʼ, meant iron fish in navajo. last of original 29 navajo code talkers developed code, chester nez, died on june 4, 2014.

the deployment of navajo code talkers continued through korean war , after, until ended in vietnam war. navajo code spoken military code never have been deciphered.