One of the Last Navajo Code Talkers Remembers WWII’s “Unbreakable Code”

This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories to show where America is the store and the American people to hear or find our our American story podcast go to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your pond many Americans have heard of the famous Navajo code talkers use their traditional language to transmit secret allied messages in the Pacific theater of combat during World War II are neck stories told to us by one of those Marines you McDonald is the president Navajo code talkers Association would like to give a special thank you to Peter's daughter Charity who travels with her father as he speaks to Americans all over this great country. Thank you for serving us and securing this audio for us is Peter McDonald at one of those talk and part of World War II shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor United States was getting ready to fight back in the Pacific not too long after December 7, 1941 arranged Navy Air Force and Army ran into one big problem. The problem was communication day tell us that in any war whichever side that has the best communication nominally has the advantage in the water while in this case the enemy had the advantage while because there were brick in every military coat that was being used in the Pacific, making it very difficult to strategize without the enemy knowing where were going to be what route we can be taken.

What where and when we are grumpy and specific location and I would be there with their submarine blow up our shipment of supplies, equipment as well as personnel.

This became a real problem for Marines and Navy, Air Force, and on a gentleman by the name of Philip Johnston was working near San Diego back in early 1942. This situation of NBA breaking code became public knowledge around January 1942 Philip Johnson learned of this situation. So he went over to United States Marine Corps base to talk with him. Recall communication officers. He told them why not use Navajo language as a co-inmate doesn't know Navajo language. Therefore, it could be said, well, after much explanation. Marines really could understand what she was really talking about so Philip Johnston went back to the Navajo nation brought four Navajos to San Diego Marine Corps base to demonstrate what he was talking about. To put to Navajos with radio headset on one end of the building.

The other two on the other end.

They gave this to a message to send to the other two that compared to two messages. The one that was sent to Wanda was received there similar but not exactly alike but Marines were very desperate to get a code that inmate would not understand so they asked the Commandant of United States Marine Corps in Washington DC.

Permission to try this suggestion made by Philip Johnston, Philip Johnson was not a Navajo. His parents came to the Navajo nation. Late 1800 as missionaries to Navajos so Philip Johnston grew up on a Navajo played with Navajo kids and learn the language he spoke Navajo very well. He also knew the culture of Navajo well to comment on Ash if they could try this. His initial response was no don't do that we don't know these Indians. He said all we know is what we see in the movies when they see a wagon train. They yell and holler right around a wagon train shooting arrows.

This is not that kind of a war so leave it alone.

That was the Commandant's initial response number two, the Commandant said Marine Corps is a very proud organization. We don't want anyone wearing United States Marine Corps uniform that might embarrass this proud organization. Just do the best you can Well with That Rejection. You May Continue to Break Codes. The Enemy Continued to Move in Our Direction. Real Fast Taken Strategic Islands As a Matter of Fact That We Need in Order to Get Close of Their Homeland More Pressure on the Commandant. We Need a Code We Must Well Just Call the Enemy and Say We Can Go to Such and Such a Place.

Such a Such a Time We Come to a Certain Size, Location, That's How It Was, and You Are Listening to Peter McDonald till One Heck of a Story about the Navajo Code Talkers and How Their Code, Their Language Came to Be Adopted by the US Marine Corps Helped Us Win a War and You Were Hearing Clearly and Pretty� A Clearly Ugly Anti-Indian Bias, but in the End, Well Really Hear What Happens Next in This Remarkable Story of One of the Last Navajo Code Talkers Talking to You during Our American Stories We Habib Here, the Host of Our American Stories Every Day on the Shelf Were Bringing Inspiring Stories from across This Great Country. Dorsum Are Big Cities and Small Towns That We Truly Can't Do the Show without You Are Stories Are Free to Listen to, but They're Not Free to Make If You Level You Here to L American Stories.com and Click the Donate Button Give a Little Give A Lot Go to L American Stories.com and Give and We Continue with Our American Stories and Peter McDonald, Who Is the Resident Navajo Code Talkers Association.

Let's Pick up with This Story and Pick up with the Continued Difficulties. Americans Were Having Moving along the Pacific Theater Because Our Codes Being Broken. Commandant in April 1942, Said Okay but You Gotta Do It My Way. Number One Asked the Navajo Nation to Use the Language Only Number Two Just Recruit 30 Young Navajos Don't Tell Them What You're Going to Do with Them Just Asked Him If They Want to Fight and Shoot the Enemy, Not with Arrows, Christ the Commandant Also Said We Want to Make Sure That These 30 Young Navajos Can Become United States Marines First so Don't Tell Them Just Asked That Want to Try on the Ranch and Fight the Enemy If They Say Yes Recruit Them like You Do All Other Marines You Recruit so Marine Corps Came to the Navajo Nation and May 1942 to Recruit 30 Young Navajos Using the Text As the Commandant Suggested You Want to Fight Wanted Shoot the Enemy You Want to Wear Nice Blue Marine Corps Uniform like This John Tavares Fight the Enemy so They Didn't Volunteer at All 30 of Them That Gave Them Preliminary Physical Exam One Drop so Just 29 Were Passed down to San Diego Now a Talking Way of 1942. 29. Young Navajos Bus down to San Diego to Inform into One Platoon.

There Were Several Platoons Going through Boot Camp All at the Same Time, Graduation from Boot Camp They Create Each Platoons Navajo Platoon Came in Number One of All the Other Tunes Going to Force That Message Went Back to the Commandant Commandant Was Very Happy That Wonderful Process Them through Combat Training on See What They Do Well What They Were on Stage Marine Corps Commandant Don't Know Is Back in Those Days in the 30s and 40s. It Was Not Unusual for Anyone of Us to Put in 5 to 10 Miles Every Day Managing the Livestock before Sunup. He Did Get out and Move These Livestock out Three or Four of Us Young People and They Tell Us to Take These Animals out to a Nice Green Pasture. If You Do Find a Green Pasture Stay out There Overnight If Necessary Maybe Two Nights so You Carry a Blanket If You Find a Good Pasture Stay out There with the Animals, Whether Screening Dust Storm Sun Beating down on Your Snow and You Stay out There and Also One of Us Would Be Karen 22 Rifle. You Get Hungry after so You Shoot a Rabbit Barbecued a Rabbit That You Mail for the Day. That's How It Was Sometimes 10 to 15 Miles Every Day Managing These Livestock so to These 29 Young Navajos That Just Went through Boot Camp. It Was like a Vacation up with Mattress Clean Sheets and Pillows.

We Do Know There Such a Thing As Pillows until We Got to San Diego Also. You Don't Have To Carry 22 Rifle to Get Something to Just Get on a Child Three Meals a Day Water Line Combat Training. The Same Thing No Problem. So These 29 Young Navajos That Went in Verse Graduated from Marine Corps Communication School with High Grades and Then They Were Separated from All Other Marines That Were Then Taken to the East Side of San Diego, a Top-Secret Location Upbuilding about Half the Size of an Average Hotel with High Fence All around the Building and It Gave at the Gate. There Were Two Guards over the Gate. There's a Big Sign That Said Kabbalah Top-Secret Operation through That GateMarine Corps Col. a Full Bird Colonel. Marcy's 29 Young Navajos through That Gate into the Classroom and in That Classroom Work Tables with Four Chairs around Each Table in Front of Each Chair Writing Tablets a Pencil Blackboard Trap in the Race or on the Wall Col. down Address These 29 Young Navajo Marines Now. He Said Telemann You Marines Now You're Ready to Go Fight and Shoot the Enemy. But before You Do That We Love for You to Do Something Else Would like for You to Develop a Military Code Using Your Language. The Col. Said Immediately. Whatever You Do in This Class from Page Top-Secret. Also, the Col. Went on and Said You're Not Going to Tear Anything Out Of This Classroom Unit (Think Abaddon Because If You Do Enemy.

She Was Sure They Search You and Then Find That Copy of the Code. If You If You Take Care around with You.

Nothing like That Everything Will Be Subject to Memory on Another Thing the Col. Said Whatever Coat Your Company Developing in This Top-Secret Classroom. Only You Would Know Not Another Navajo That's the Kind of Coat We Want to. Col. Then Said Here's a Box Full of Simple Messages Sent and Combat Look at It, Read It and See How You Can Send Messages like This Using the Coat Your Company Developing. Col. Sat down with His Pipe and Said Go to Work Telemann so Date. They Look at the Messages They Read It There Already in English Language. Using the English Alphabet ABC DEF This Present the First Big Problem for These 29 Young Navajos Were Talking Now June 1942. Why Was It a Problem Because Navajos Now the Written Language. Navajo Is Not a Written Language. My Goodness's Story about Boot Camp Being a Breeze. These Guys Live off the Field and We Didn't Actually Have the Horn for Their Meals When We Come Back More of This Remarkable Piece of American History and How Americans Live and Learn. In the End, Having to Fight and Love Each Other. The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers Here. Our American Sword and We Continue with Our American Stories and Peter McDonald. Riveting Story about How the Navajo Code Talkers Came to Be and He's the President and Navajo Code Talkers Association. Let's Continue with Peter Last Left off. We Don't Have Navajo Words for Letters like ABCD E so How Do Well You Going to Send a Message You Don't Even Have Words for. Eventually One of Them Went to the Blackboard and Wrote on the Big K and Said That's Called the K + + Not in Navajo Means about P after Discussing It A While They Call P Shush Shush in Navajo Means Bear C Masa Musick in Navajo Means Cat D.

B Be in Navajo Means De DER All at Dr. C the Code Word for Z Was a Special Place Test Automation Navajo Means Sink Sink Starts with ZI, the Col. Also Said There's Another Marine Corps Officer in That Same Classroom. He Said This Officer Is Marine Corps Military Code Expert. Whatever Coat You Develop. You Run It by Him so They Did the Officer Said That's Great That's Wonderful. But Remember We Have an Enemy That Is Very Smart and Very Intelligent. They Can Break Any Code That's Use, and They Use Different Methods to Do That. One Other Method Is Repetition like the Word Guadalcanal Has Four Asian so You Know What to Say + I + R + I + R4 Times Spelling Guadalcanal so Back to the Drawing Board. Why Do We Do Well to 29. Young Navajos Decided Okay.

If That's the Case Then Why Don't We Create Two Additional Words for Each Letters of the English Alphabet, like the K the First Codeword Would Be + the Second Current Word for the Letter and Would Be 10 1019 Navajo Means Accepting Your Childhood with Fifth Third Codeword for the K Would like She Would like She in Navajo Means AMT Two Additional Words for Each Letters of the English Alphabet from a Scene That Ran up by the Code Expert to Code Expert so Wonderful That's What We Want Terrific Yeah Terrific for You As We Had to Memorize Them Anymore. Code Words for Each Letters of the English Alphabet Remember Everything Subject to Memory on Every Friday That Would Be a Test to Divide the Group into Two Group A and Group B While Taught Piano July 1942.

Final Test Group A and Group B Group Is Given a Real Tough Message Containing All of Those, 260 Quote Works Just Develop and Memorize Center Group B. Group B Wrote It down to Compare the Two Messages Very Much Unlike with One Exception.

Punctuation Marks Back to the Classroom to Create Code Words for Punctuation Marks up. No Problem Definition Definition Then Navajo Means a Black Dot; Took a Little Time to Create Code Word for It, but Eventually It Was Called Decision to Not Decision but Sent Not Daily in Navajo Means Are Black� Lost Its Tail Codeword for;? I John John in Navajo Means.

Here's? Looks like a near All the Punctuations You Could Think of Codewords Were Developed.

Memorize Back to Group A and Group B. Group B Wrote It down Day Compared to Two Messages by Golly, It's Very Were Very Much Alive. As a Matter of Fact, It Looks like a Xerox Copy of the One That Was Sent at This Juncture, the Col. Said Telemann Were Finished. Now We Contestants Quote That You Just Develop an Actual Path to See How Your Memory Works under Enemy Gunfire, so I Guess Seven 1942, First Marine Division Landed on the Beaches of Guadalcanal with 13 Navajo Code Talkers to Test This New Quote That Was Just Develop Three Weeks after the Landing General Vandergriff Commander of the First Marine Division Sent Word Back to United States, Said This Navajo Code Is Terrific Enemy Never Understood We Don't Understand It Either but It Works. Send Us Some More Navajos so from That Day on San Diego Marine Corps Base Took Charge of Recruiting Navajos after August 1942 Using the Same Tactics, Not Hearsay. You Want to Join the Marines Want to Shoot the Enemy You Want to Wear a Blue Uniform like This. Come Join the Marines.

Nothing about Coat Zero so We All Volunteered to John Moran and Fight. I Went in Early 1944 at Age 15, That's Another Story. But Anyway, after Guadalcanal Every Landing in the Pacific Navajo Code Was Used after Guadalcanal Can Avail after Bougainville Cape Cluster after Cape Cluster New Britain after New Britain, Make 10 Collateral Ln., Eniwetok, Saipan, Tinian, Baja San Juan after Quan, the next silent hello hello a real bad one after pantaloon Iwo Jima. Another bad one after you will open our after Okinawa. Some of us were sent into North China and what a story you were hearing is Peter McDonald president Navajo code talkers and this is what World War II did were great and terrific stories about our Tuskegee airmen for the women who worked riveting and doing all kinds of things that shipyards across this country. It moved the country along on so many fronts. When we come back more of the story of the last Navajo code talker and its Peter McDonald were listening to hear our American story, and we continue with our American stories and Peter McDonald, the president Navajo code talkers Association and a code talker himself who served in the Pacific theater. We were just talking about the code talkers and how they hop our own island to island. Every battle in the Pacific. They were there.

Let's pick up who we last left off with Peter McDonald October 25, 1945 we have separate peace treaty ceremony with almost those Japanese and North China at SingTel China October 25, 1945.

All through these banners Navajo code was use.

How does he sound well go to Iwo Jima. Three Marine division landed on Iwo Jima, third, fourth and fifth. February 1945. Each division of the United States Marine Corps have at least 70 Navajo code talkers assigned to each division, every Landing that's how it was at least a dozen Navajo code talkers to hit the peach first with the first way so you talk about over 200 Navajo code talkers involved on the island of you on the south side of coasters mozzarella but most people are familiar with that. In the center is the airstrip on the north side there's some little hills beneath one of those hills accompany Marines was pinned down very badly.

There were been fired from three different directions. Mortar shells were being dropped on them. There were hopper and in the fog so desperately can move the commander of the company, scribble a message headed to the code talker does covering the that particular unit for the frontline asked him to send that message depicts command posts asking for help, what to do.

Navajo code talkers to he got the message from the commander that company written English. He then dial another Navajo code talker down at the beach, command posts and send that message fight away this message.

Seven. Tell you is the exact message that was sent on he will a copy of this message is Marine Corps archives in Washington DC where the Navajo code talker got the message and send it to Navajo code talker at the peach command posts.

Why did he write down.

She buys no sick horse.

No, he wrote down send demolition team to share 362. That was the message that message Navajo code took 20 seconds after 20 seconds debates command post commander organize a rescue team to save the company Marines tanks with flamethrowers. Other heavy units was sent out there over 2000 Navajo messages. The first 48 hours on Iwo Jima land if you do little Amanda that binged Navajo quote going through the air every minute nonstop for 48 hours.

We Marines we always used to say this name and then we go look at it for that was our motto, but make sure Connor said in his report, no without Navajo code Marines would never have taken the island of Iwo Jima. I told you earlier that I John Marine when I was 15 years old around to snow sparse area where I grew up. I have a cousin he went in 1943 and was involved in about two landings. When he came home from on furlough. He was wearing that beautiful Marine Corps uniform, said Tom, how do I get one of those uniform.

He said join the Marines. I said I want to do that so he looks at me and said how old are you I said I'm 15% can't do that. You gotta be at least 17 to join the Marines that they don't know.

Larry says whatever you do, you gotta tell them you're 17 years old, so Tom and I we went to Farmington, New Mexico, Marine Corps recruiting office. I asked the recruiter's. I want to join the Marines.

He looks at bases all are on 17 and he said where's your birth certificate until I don't have her certificate.

I was born out in the boondocks, no hospital, no paperwork, so he said well I can let you go in the letter somebody vouch for you that you're 17 years old I say here is my cousin's United States Marine. So Tom signed paperwork saying I'm 17 years old anyway.

He went back to join his unit.

That's how I John states Marines war is ugly war is bad yet.

Even to this day we send our kids out while because we love this country because we cherish what this country means to us luck, freedom and liberty.

We don't want our parents and relatives to be subjected to the ugliness of war. That's where we are out there doing this to code that we develop was so good that upon discharge from the United States Marine date told us, don't tell anyone what you did because what you did is still top-secret.

You wait until the code is declassified only theory we were told to say if people continue to assess what we did in war. Just tell them you are radioman. That's all. After the war, we could tell anyone. We finally forgot it moved along. It was not until 1968, 23 years after World War II ended that the Navajo quote was declassified as a military code and was only after 1968 that we were allowed to talk about. Of course we can accompany here very long. Tell people like you folks what happened but we want to build a museum national Navajo code talker Museum so that when we are all gone are children of grand casement future generation can go to Navajo code talker Museum and learn all about who we are as American and that as diverse as we find our way of life is threatened. We all come together as one using the different skill talents and they which is whatever it is that we have we become one and when we become one. We are invincible we cannot be defeated in a beautiful job in the editing by Greg Hagler. Special thanks to Peter McDonald was a Marine and Pres. Navajo code talkers Association and we will always tell that story. Peter always find out more about the museum will Navajo code talkers Museum in say Bonito New Mexico it's spelled TSE say Bonito.

What a story about so much. He says the Marines used to say Mimi island and will go get it for you. Of course, without the Navajo code Marines couldn't take Iwo Jima or anything else. Whatever you do, tell them you're 17 years old.

His pal said and what a story that was imagine it was a day when 15-year-old volunteered to join the war when I had to be 17.

What a time, a beautiful story about so much about what makes America great, never been said better on the show and from Peter McDonald story of the Navajo code talkers here on our American story