Throughout the course of World War II, Navajo code talkers played an essential role in American Military communications and saved thousands of lives as a result.
Navajo involvement in the military started around 1942. Philip Johnston, a civil engineer proposed the use of the Navajo language as a undecipherable code for the United States Marine Corp at the start of the second World War. The Navajo code was so effective do to it’s complex grammar and the fact that it was unique from all other dialects. It was an unwritten language and its syntax and tone qualities made it nearly impossible for anyone understand without considerable training. The Navajo were eager to fight for their county. Many believed that if they fought they would be treated
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By the May of 1942, the first 29 Navajo attended boot camp. This first group of Navajo soldiers pioneered the Navajo code. They determined that spelling out military terms phonetically during combat would be too time consuming. As a result, certain concepts, tactics, terms, and weaponry were given common shortened abbreviations. An example of this is “a, “shark” in Navajo would translate to a destroyer” (NavajoPeople.org, The Navajo Language). A codebook was developed with the sole purpose to teach new initiates, but was never taken into battle for the security of the code. During training, trainees would memorize the codebook and then be forced to practice under nerve-racking conditions. After the first of the Navajo marines finished training General Vogel commented, “we need only look to our navajo Code Talkers during World War II to see the value that Native languages bring not only to their culture, but to the security of all Americans.” (Navajo Code Talker, Navajo Quotes) During the war, the Navajo were treated like any other Marine, they weren’t discriminated against and many would come to enjoy the social and economic benefits of being in the Marine