| Veterans
News Flash 
World
War II Navajo Code Talkers
Visit Pentagon, Meet
With Pace
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
 WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 - The chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff today met here with a group
of Marine veterans who used their native Navajo
language to baffle the Japanese during World War
II.
"You all are legends of our corps and Marines who
demonstrated the resilience and capacity that made
an enormous difference during the course of the
war," Marine Gen. Peter Pace told five "Navajo
code talkers" and their families during a morning
meeting in his Pentagon office.
Pace
presented the code talkers with personalized
pens, while the general received a multicolored
blanket bearing Navajo symbols.
"This is a priceless
gift," said Pace, as the
blanket was draped across his four-starred shoulders. "I'm
going to sleep with it tonight."
Marine
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, left, meets
with five Navajo Code Talkers and
their family members at the Pentagon,
Aug. 10, 2007. The Navajos served
as U.S. Marines in World War II and
helped develop a communications code
based on their language.
Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air
Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen |
Imperial Japan's bombing
of the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,
on Dec. 7, 1941, brought America into World War
II. As part of the U.S. "island-hopping" strategy
to push the Japanese back across the Pacific, the
Marines in 1942 began training troops of Navajo
Indian descent to use their language as part of
a code to communicate troop movements and other
important battle information over telephones and
radios.
More than 400 Navajo
code talkers were trained in 1942-45 to take
part in Marine operations in the Pacific Theater.
The code was so successful that it wasn't declassified
until 1968. A Navajo code talkers' exhibit was
dedicated at the Pentagon in 1992.
Congressional Gold
Medals were awarded to the original 29 code talkers
by President Bush in July 2001 in the Capitol
Rotunda.
The code talkers who
visited the Pentagon today are among 225 who
received Silver Congressional Medals in November
2001 at Window Rock, Ariz. They are:
- Cpl. Alfred Peaches,
82, of Winslow, Ariz.;
- Cpl. Joe Morris Sr.,
82, Daggett, Calif.;
- Pvt. Arthur J. Hubbard
Sr., 95, Ganado, Ariz.;
- Pvt. George Willie,
81, Leupp, Ariz.; and
- Pfc. Samuel Smith,
82, Gallup, N.M.
Morris enlisted in
the Marines at age 17 and completed four months
of code training at Camp Pendleton, Calif., in
1944. The first group of about 29 code talkers
had preceded his class, he said.
The Japanese "couldn't read our code," Morris said.
Use of the Navajo-coded messages, he said, assisted
U.S. forces in ejecting Japanese troops from their
captured territories.
"We started pushing them back," Morris said.
After the war ended, Morris left the Marines in
August 1946.
"They're all heroes." said Morris' 73-year-old
wife, Charlotte.
Marine Lance Cpl. Osiris Azar, 19, who hails from
Benton Harbor, Mich., talked with Morris about
his World War II exploits in the Pacific, which,
like many of the other code talkers, included duty
at the battles for Guadalcanal, Guam, Saipan, and
Okinawa.
Azar is an administrative specialist with U.S.
Marine Corps Headquarters' Consolidated Administration
Office at Henderson Hall, in Arlington, Va., and
he was among five modern-day Marines who met with
the World War II veterans during lunch prior to
a group tour of the Pentagon.
"I actually like history a lot, and there aren't
too many chances to speak to legends," Azar said
of Morris and his fellow code talkers. "I'm real
proud to say I've been able to meet someone who
did so much for our country."
Samuel Smith's son, Michael Smith, 45, hails from
Window Rock, Ariz., the capital of the Navajo Nation.
The younger Smith also is a member of the Navajo
Code Talkers Association.
Less than 70 Navajo code talkers survive today,
said Smith, who was a Marine like his father, having
served during the early 1980s.
"If you'd ask my Dad about the code and how it
was for him in battle, he will tell you that he
was a Marine first. That was his job: to be a Marine," the
younger Smith said.
"The code was one of the weapons that he'd had
to fight the battle," he continued. "My whole family
is very proud of my dad."
Samuel Smith said he has tried to serve a larger
cause than himself throughout his life.
"It was not just the (Navajo) code," Smith said
of his World War II service. "It was defending
your country."
Related Sites:
Photo
Essay: Navajo Code Talkers Visit Pace
Related Articles:
Veteran
Recalls Navajo Code Talkers’ War in the
Pacific
Last
World War II Comanche Code Talker Laid to Rest
SOURCE:
VNIS
top
of page |
