Navajo Code Talkers
During World War II, the United States need help from the Navajo's. Even though in the past when people misunderstood Native Americans and their customs, and killed them in thousands, they accepted to help the U.S.
The U.S. needed help with communication. Everyone must stay in contact from ship to ship so that they know whether to attack of fall back. The U.S. knew that if the enemy heard what their plans were it would ruin the whole operation, so they came up with codes, since they were essential to protect their conversations. Even though codes were used often, they didn't always hold up and were broken much of the time.
In 1942, Phillip Johnston thought of a code that was "unbreakable". It was based on the Navajo language. One day Johnston was reading an article about an armored division in Louisiana that was trying to come up with a way to code military communications using Native American personnel. Johnston came up with an idea and headed to Camp Elliot and presented his idea to Lt. Col. James E. Jones, who was the Area Signal Officer. He was skeptical because he was afraid that the language would just absorb the same word as English words, which would make the code easily to decipher.
Johnston had an idea, that instead of adding the term "machine gun" to the Navajo language, they would designate a word or two already in the Navajo language as a military term. For example, the term "battleship" became "whale, and the term "fighter plane" became "hummingbird".
After a demonstration was given to Major General Clayton B Vogel, and was successful a letter was sent to the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps recommending that they enlist 200 Navajos for the assignment. Sadly they were only given permission to begin the project with 30 Navajos.
Recruiters visited the Navajo reservation and selected 30 code talkers, but one dropped out so the program started with 29. Many of them had never been off the reservation so the transition was hard, but they got accustomed and they worked day/night helping to create the code and learn it. After the code was created, the code talkers had to be tested and re-tested. One mis-translated word would lead to the death of thousands. 27 of the code talkers were sent to Guadalcanal to be the first to use the new code in combat, the other two were left behind to become instructors.
Johnston volunteered to enlist if he could participate in the program, since he hadn't been able to participate in the creation of code. His offer was accepted and he took over the training aspect of the program. The program proved successful and soon the U.S. Marine Corps authorized unlimited recruiting for the Navajo code talkers program. By the end of the war 420 Navajo men worked as code talkers.
The U.S. needed help with communication. Everyone must stay in contact from ship to ship so that they know whether to attack of fall back. The U.S. knew that if the enemy heard what their plans were it would ruin the whole operation, so they came up with codes, since they were essential to protect their conversations. Even though codes were used often, they didn't always hold up and were broken much of the time.
In 1942, Phillip Johnston thought of a code that was "unbreakable". It was based on the Navajo language. One day Johnston was reading an article about an armored division in Louisiana that was trying to come up with a way to code military communications using Native American personnel. Johnston came up with an idea and headed to Camp Elliot and presented his idea to Lt. Col. James E. Jones, who was the Area Signal Officer. He was skeptical because he was afraid that the language would just absorb the same word as English words, which would make the code easily to decipher.
Johnston had an idea, that instead of adding the term "machine gun" to the Navajo language, they would designate a word or two already in the Navajo language as a military term. For example, the term "battleship" became "whale, and the term "fighter plane" became "hummingbird".
After a demonstration was given to Major General Clayton B Vogel, and was successful a letter was sent to the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps recommending that they enlist 200 Navajos for the assignment. Sadly they were only given permission to begin the project with 30 Navajos.
Recruiters visited the Navajo reservation and selected 30 code talkers, but one dropped out so the program started with 29. Many of them had never been off the reservation so the transition was hard, but they got accustomed and they worked day/night helping to create the code and learn it. After the code was created, the code talkers had to be tested and re-tested. One mis-translated word would lead to the death of thousands. 27 of the code talkers were sent to Guadalcanal to be the first to use the new code in combat, the other two were left behind to become instructors.
Johnston volunteered to enlist if he could participate in the program, since he hadn't been able to participate in the creation of code. His offer was accepted and he took over the training aspect of the program. The program proved successful and soon the U.S. Marine Corps authorized unlimited recruiting for the Navajo code talkers program. By the end of the war 420 Navajo men worked as code talkers.