The United States looked around for a code that they could use during World War II, to avoid being overheard or having intelligence from the Axis enemies gained by communications between different units and Allied Groups. One of the methods for communications that was used was Navajo Code Talkers. There were hundreds of Native Marine Corps Navajo Code Talkers that were enlisted and assigned to different U.S. Marine Corps units.
The Son of a Missionary, Phillip Johnson approached the U.S. Marine Corps in the months after Pearl Harbor and suggested that they used Native American Navajo Code Talkers to prevent others from listening in on communications. Johnson took four Navajos from Los Angeles shipyards and demonstrated how the Navajo language could be used to keep military communications private. He demonstrated the ability to a group of Marine Officers, at Camp Elliot in San Diego. One of the officers in attendance was General Clayton Vogel, who was the Commanding Officer of the Pacific Amphibious fleet. General Vogel was very pleased with the demonstration and ordered the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps to recruit 220 Navajo Code Talkers, but in the end General Vogel had to settle for a 30 Navajos for a pilot program.
Are you interested in an exciting career in the Military? See if you qualify. Click Here Now!
The original Navajo code talkers were put through U.S. Marine Corps basic training and assigned to command and field units across the Pacific Theater. A codebook was slowly established, and code words used to refer to personnel and equipment. Navajo U.S. Marine Code Talkers saw action across the Pacific Theater; they were used in the Battle Of Guadalcanal, the Battle for Iwo Jima. Three U.S. Marine Navajo Code Talkers were retained in the United States to train other code talkers, and 29 were issued orders and assigned to commands.
There was one Navajo Sergeant in the United States Army that was captured in the Philippines in 1942, and he was ordered by the Japanese to try and break the code. He could understand the Navajo language, but the words that he related did not make any sense. The U.S. Marines had made a code within a code, which prevented it from ever being broken. The Navajo code was never broken by the Japanese military.
High ranking Japanese Imperial Navy and Army officers have testified that without the use of the Navajo code talkers, that there would have been no secrecy and that the Battle for Iwo Jima would never have been won by the U.S. Marines like it was.
Hello,
My name is Candice Tuosto and I am a graduate student over at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa, getting my Masters in Library and Information Science. We are creating a Libguide on The Navajo Code Talkers, which would be used for helping students and library patrons find information on this subject within our Library. I would like to ask for permission to use some of the information for my short biography and your photograph for our Libguide. This is strictly for academic purposes and will not be used in any other manner. The reason I would like to ask is that we have been asked to publish our Libguide at a local library in Oahu. I would like for your consent to use your image/informatoin and and we would cite your web site for allowing us to use them. If this is possible we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Hello my name is Ian. I am a retired sergeant from the NJANG who saw duty in OIF/OEF. My girlfriend’s recently deceased father served with the Navajo Code Talkers in the Philipines. He stated that he had served with Army Intelligence. I /we are trying to find out if there were any kind of service awards or medals that he may have been entitled to, and possibly have them awarded to him posthumously. since it was not until the last few years of his life that he even talked about his service. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks.
Dear Navajo code Talkers, I do not have any info. you are seeking, but I wrote 21 Soldiers in Quait A couple years ago, 9 ans. me back. I love writing letters to our Service men & women. I also wrote to a couple service people back in Desert Storm, one was a girl paramedic,she returned home to her grandmothers home in the states, she called me to thank me for writing her while deployed in the service. My reason for writing is “I’d be happy to write to any of your Code Talkers who would like a Grandma to corrosponde with, I would write them every week wherever they might be deployed, you can answer back at e-mail above. God Bless all our Service Men for Keeping our country safe. You Have A Gift!” Code Talkers” You save live’s every day. Mrs. Dianne Arden, Kingman Az.6-2-2014
My father was on the USS California Battleship we worked with the code talker I never knew anything about his service other than he was on the Battleship and worked as a radio operator I don’t know how much or how little he has passed away and my mother just did I was cleaning out one of his drawers and found what was left of a metal but have not been able to ID it I scanned it and sent it to Navy personal no fee back on that metal as well as one other ribbon which turned out to be a foreign award called Philippine presidential unit citation ( navy ) found a picture of it. I have been told that the one I can not ID maybe the code talkers metal but can’t find it on line or any magazine of military metals