At the beginning of World War II, only 28 non-Navajos spoke Diné, the language of the Navajos. One of them was Philip Johnston whose missionary parents raised him on the Navajo reservation which overlaps New Mexico and Arizona. Johnston had served in the U.S. Army during WWI and was working as a civil engineer in Los Angeles at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After the U.S. suffered devastating losses in the Pacific, the need for a coded language to prevent the Japanese from learning of American troop movements became paramount. In an article in the newspaper, Johnston was alerted to the challenge. Johnston located a few Navajos living in the Los Angeles area and arranged for them to demonstrate to the U.S. Marine commanders the utility of using Navajo and English languages in transmitting military communications. After impressing the officers at the U.S. Marine base in San Diego, they obtained permission to enlist 30 young Navajos from their reservation. Willing to fulfill their patriotic duty, many recruits were younger than 18, the legal age of enlistment. They fibbed about their ages, since the Navajo custom was not to record birth certificates. "They gave us two weeks to think about it. I did my own thinking; I didn’t inquire of my parents." ~ Cozy S. Brown, young Navajo soldier The U.S. Marines recruited an initial 29 men intended to be code talkers, whose numbers grew to approximately 420 by the end of the war. Even so, 3,600 Navajos eventually served in the military forces during WWII—a sizable percentage of their population of 50,000. Ironically, the young Navajos were assigned to make a code from the very language they were forbidden to speak in government-run BIA schools. The Navajo Code Talkers’ military success in preventing the Japanese from deciphering American military actions, helped to shorten the war in the Pacific. The code was never broken, nor no code talker ever captured. The Japanese military remained frustrated as they tortured captured Navajos who could not understand the code when the Japanese forced them to listen to it. For many years after the war to protect the project’s secrecy, the code talkers were not publicly recognized for their bravery and unique contributions. Only within recent decades have the Navajo Code Talkers been honored, especially with long-deserved Congressional medals. In February 2000, the toy company Hasbro introduced a Navajo Code Talker GI Joe doll to honor the men. Their critical contributions to the preservation of this country had finally been recognized.
There's a book called " Navajos and World War II " ( can't remember who wrote it ... I have it here somewhere !! ) They interviewed Cozy Stanley Brown ( I love that name !! ) .... he tells about his life in the Marines and how he worked with the code etc !
WINDOW ROCK — John Brown Jr., one of the original 29 Code Talkers and a former Navajo Tribal councilman, died Wednesday morning. He was 88. Flags have been ordered to be flown at half-staff by President Joe Shirley beginning Thursday in Brown’s honor. A community meeting is scheduled Thursday at 6:30 at the Crystal Chapter House, the president’s office stated. Funeral arrangements are pending. “Today, with sadness, we heard of the passing of Mr. John Brown Jr., one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers and one of the Navajo Nation’s great warriors,” Shirley said. “For so long, these brave men were the true unsung heroes of World War II, shielding their valiant accomplishments not only from the world but from their own families. The recognition and acknowledgment of their great feats came to them late in life but, for most, not too late. These heroes among us are now a very precious few, and we, as a nation, mourn their loss. We offer our deepest condolences to the family of Mr. John Brown Jr.” Brown was born Dec. 24, 1921, in Chinle, near Canyon de Chelly to the late Nonabah Begay and the late John Brown. His mother died two years ago at the age of 102. Brown attended Chinle Boarding School and graduated in 1940 from Albuquerque Indian School. He was playing basketball when he heard about the bombing at Pearl Harbor, said his son Frank Brown. “Sometime after that he remembered a number of Marine recruiters started talking to the young Navajo boys,” Frank Brown said. Brown ended up going to Fort Wingate to the military installation. His father remembered being signed up, sworn in and given his physical right then and there, Frank Brown said. Brown was immediately sent to Camp Pendleton for basic training. “They weren’t allowed to go home to say goodbye to their family or write letters,” Frank Brown said. “At some phase in their basic training, they were taken into one big room and a commandant told them they were all there for a special reason, and they were to devise a code in their language,” Frank Brown said. “The boys were left there in the room and they didn’t know what they heck to do. But they devised the code using names of animals and mammals to describe what would go with the alphabet.” That code consisted of translations for 211 English words and was later expanded to 411 words, according to the president’s office. The code also included Navajo equivalents for the letters in the English alphabets so the Code Talkers could spell out names and locations. The code and the Code Talkers would help end World War II. Navajo Code Talkers participated in battles in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Frank Brown said his father served in four major battles at Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Guadalcanal. The code was not declassified until 1968. Brown was one of the original 29 Code Talkers presented with the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush on July 26, 2001 — 56 years following World War II. At the presentation at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Brown said that it was an honor to be there representing his fellow distinguished Code Talkers. “I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, not to become a Code Talker — that came later — but to defend the United States of America in the war against the Japanese emperor. My mother was afraid for my safety, so my grandfather told her to take one of my shoes, place an arrowhead in it, take it to the mountain called Two Little Hills, and go there every day to pray that I would remain safe. Maybe she was more successful than she imagined because the Marine Corps soon had the Navajo Marines develop a secret code using our language. My comrade and I volunteered to become Navajo radio operators, or Code Talkers,” Brown said at the presentation. “Our precious and sacred Navajo language was bestowed upon us, not a nation, but a holy people. Our language is older than the Constitution of the United States. I’m proud that, at this point in American history, our native language and the code will developed came to the aid of our country, saving American lives and helping the other U.S. armed forces ultimately to defeat the enemies. “After the original 29 Code Talkers, there are just five of us that live today: Chester Nez, Lloyd Oliver, Allen Dale June, Joe Palmer and myself. We have seen much in our lives. We have experienced war and peace. We know the value of freedom and democracy that this great nation embodies. But our experience has also shown us how fragile these things can be and how we must stay ever vigilant to protect them, as Code Talkers, as Marines. “We did our part to protect these values. It is my hope that our young people will carry on this honorable tradition as long as the grass shall grow and water shall flow,” Brown said. President Richard Nixon awarded Navajo Code Talkers a special certificate in appreciation for their patriotism, resourcefulness and courage in 1971. They were included in the Bicentennial Parade in Washington July 4, 1976. The U. S. Senate passed a bill declaring August 14 National Code Talkers Day in May 1982. Frank Brown said his father lived a hard life, first training as a welder, then becoming a journeyman and master carpenter and cabinetmaker. He was one of the veterans who returned to Navajo land and helped to build the Navajo government by serving as a member of the Navajo Tribal Council from 1962 to 1982. He also served three terms as Crystal Chapter president. “He was always active in politics,” Frank Brown said. “He was a wonderful speaker.” Brown began a second career as a traditional counselor for the tribe’s Division of Social Services, driving 130 miles to Chinle and back each day. After that, he went on a lecture tour speaking about the Navajo Code Talkers around the country and becoming active in the Navajo Code Talkers Association, his son said. “Dad was also a traditional practitioner, constantly learning the traditional way of life but at the same time he was always active in the Mormon Church,” Frank Brown said. Brown is survived by his wife Loncie Polacca Brown and his children Dorothy Whilden, Preston Brown, Everett Brown, Virgil Brown and Frank Brown. His other children were the late Dale Brown and the late Ruth Ann McComb.
A trio of Navajo code talkers from World War II will be among those receiving special recognition July 3 during this year's Independence Day ceremonies at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Arthur J. Hubbard Sr., Joe Morris and George B. Willie Sr. will be presented American flags during a flag-folding ceremony presided over by Rushmore superintendent Gerard Baker. Baker will be joined by the Wild Horse Bute Tokala Color Guard and the Ellsworth Air Force Base Honor Guard. "The ingenuity and hard work of the Navajo code talkers were instrumental to the United States' success in World War II," Baker said in a news release. "It is an honor to have these three men with us for Mount Rushmore's Independence Day and to celebrate their contributions to America's fight for universal freedom." A special feature of the ceremony will be the flags the three men will receive. Three American flags will be inside the B-1 bomber that will perform a 7 p.m. flyover at the memorial and will be given to the code talkers after the event. Hubbard, Morris and Willie were three of more than 400 Native Americans between 1942 and 1945 who used their Native language to develop highly accurate and efficient codes to transmit military information in the Pacific theater. The undecipherable Navajo code took only minutes to transmit compared with the hours it took to translate messages in Morse code. The Navajo code talkers served in all six Marine divisions and were praised for their central role in the United State's victory at Iwo Jima. Hubbard served as an instructor of the code at Camp Elliott during the war. He later served as an Arizona state senator for 14 years and was the first Native American voted into the Arizona state senate. Morris served as a corporal in the 22nd Marine Regiment and participated in the battles of Guadalcanal, Guam, Saipan, Okinawa and Tins Tao China. Willie served in the 2nd Marine Division during the battle of Okinawa Ryukmu Island and the occupation of Japan from Sept. 23, 1945 until July 1, 1946.
