West Texas Young Marines Traveled To Arizona To Honor Navajo Code Talkers From WWII

Youth members of the West Texas Young Marines from El Paso joined 120 other Young Marines from across the country as they gathered in Window Rock, Arizona, to honor and give praise to the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII.

The Young Marines is a youth education and service program for boys and girls, age eight through the completion of high school. The program focuses on character building, leadership, self-discipline and promoting a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

“Navajo Code Talkers Day is an event that the Young Marines and the Navajo code talkers look forward to every year," said Brenda McNulty, Young Marines event coordinator. "Our partnership between the descendants of the Navajo Code Talkers and the Young Marines has strengthened year after year since 2006. It is a collaborative effort in which both parties create a successful event for everyone to enjoy.”

In the Young Marines, many friendships are formed and many such friendships continue into adulthood. Besides Navajo Code Talkers Day, there are leadership schools as well as opportunities such as visiting Pearl Harbor and participating in summer camps for sailing, simulated flying, working at a cattle ranch, exploring the "Wild West," scuba diving lessons and visiting American historical sites.

About the Navajo Code Talkers

The Navajo code talkers took part in every assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They transmitted messages by telephone and radio in their native language, a code that the Japanese never broke.

The idea to use Navajo for secure communications came from Philip Johnston, the son of a missionary to the Navajos and one of the few non-Navajos who spoke their language fluently. Johnston, brought up on the Navajo reservation, was a World War I veteran who knew of the military's search for a code that would withstand all attempts to decipher it.

Johnston believed Navajo answered the military requirement for an undecipherable code because Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. It has no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest. Less than 30 non-Navajos, none of them Japanese, could understand the language at the outbreak of World War II.

Early in 1942, Johnston met with Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, and his staff to convince them of the Navajo language's value as code. Johnston staged tests under simulated combat conditions, demonstrating that Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line English message in 20 seconds. Machines of the time required 30 minutes to perform the same job.

In May, 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Then, at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, this first group created the Navajo code. They developed a dictionary and numerous words for military terms. The dictionary and all code words had to be memorized during training, so there was nothing in writing to fall into the wrong hands.

Once a Navajo code talker completed his training, he was sent to a Marine unit deployed in the Pacific theater. The code talkers' primary job was to talk, transmitting information on tactics and troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield communications over telephones and radios.

The Navajos won praise for their skill, speed and accuracy.

"Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima," said Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer.

Connor had six Navajo code talkers working around the clock during the first two days of the battle. Those six sent and received over 800 messages, all without error.

The Japanese, who were skilled code breakers, remained baffled by the Navajo language. The Japanese chief of intelligence, Lieutenant General Seizo Arisue, said that while they were able to decipher the codes used by the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps, they never cracked the code used by the Marines.

In 1942, there were about 50,000 Navajo tribe members. As of 1945, about 540 Navajos served as Marines, 375 of those as code talkers. The rest served in other capacities.

Navajo code talkers remained potentially valuable even after the war. For that reason, the code talkers, whose skill and courage saved both American lives and military engagements, only recently earned recognition from the government and the public.

In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14, 1982, as "Navajo Code Talkers Day."

The Code Talker Recognition Act of 2007 recognizes every code talker who served in the United States military with a Congressional Gold Medal for his tribe and a silver medal duplicate to each code talker.

About the Young Marines

The Young Marines is a national non-profit 501c (3) youth education and service program for boys and girls, age eight through the completion of high school. The Young Marines promotes the mental, moral and physical development of its members. The program focuses on teaching the values of leadership, teamwork and self-discipline, so its members can live and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

Since the Young Marines' humble beginnings in 1959 with one unit and a handful of boys, the organization has grown to 275 units with 9,200 youth and 2,760 adult volunteers in 40 states, the District of Columbia and Okinawa with affiliates in other countries.

For more information, visit the official website at: https://www.youngmarines.com/.