Code talker shares World War II story at L-S

[SR-25]

The respect given to Chester Nez by his fellow marines could be seen when a full honor guard meet him at the entrance to Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and provided an escort to the school's auditorium.

Students, veterans and members of the community gathered on Wednesday to hear Nez talk about his experiences in World War II as a radio operator for the United States Marine Corps. Nez, a native of Albuquerque, N.M, is one of the four surviving members of the original 29 Navajo recruits credited with having created a unique code based on the Navajo language for the Marine corps. The Marines used the code to transmit enemy positions, troop status, and call for supplies during intense fighting, throughout the war in the pacific. The Japanese were never able to decipher the code.

"I had no idea, really, that they had done this," L-S senior Josh Dean said following the presentation.

"It was interesting, how intricate (the code) was, and how fast they were," senior Tim Leggett said. The Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line English message in 20 seconds. Encryption machines of the time required 30 minutes to perform the same job.

Nez had visited L-S last year as part of a career day. He left such a strong impression on the students and administration that met him, that he was invited back to talk to a larger group. The honor guard for the presentation was provided by the MetroWest detachment of the Marine Corps League.

The forum allowed students to ask Nez about everything from his relationship with other Marines to throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park for the World Series. One student asked if by serving in the U.S. Marines if he ever felt that he was betraying his people.

"My people were mistreated in a lot of ways," Nez responded, speaking about the Hwéeldi, or the Long Walk in 1864 and years of imprisonment at Fort Sumner, N.M. "I always admire what my people taught me." As a young man, when marine recruiters came to the reservation, Nez felt the need to "go somewhere, to do something," he enlisted in the marines and said that his parents were proud of what he was doing for his people and his country.

The idea to use the Navajo for secure communications came from Philip Johnston, the son of a missionary to the Navajos, and one of the few non-Navajos who spoke the language fluently. Johnston was a World War I veteran and knew that the Choctaw language had been used for codes in World War I. He convinced Maj. General Clayton B. Vogel, commander of the pacific fleet, to use the Navajo to develop a code. About 540 Navajo served as marines during the war, most were trained as code talkers.

In May of 1942, Nez and 28 other Navajo were sent to Camp Pendleton in California and were told to create a code.

"We were all surprised that we were told to develop something that we never thought we could do," Nez said. "It was one of the hardest things we had to do; create a code in our own language."

Nez's group created new terms for military hardware that would be used to call up supplies, but what proved to be most useful was the invention of an alphabet to cover any unforeseen circumstances. Using animal names to stand for letters, they could spell out any words that they had not created it's own code word for, Nez said.

"I used to hear the other guys talking to each other at night trying to memorize the code," he told the audience.

It took the group 13 weeks to create and memorize the code at Camp Pendleton. From there they were sent to the island of Guadalcanal, where their code was first used in combat. The code talkers worked around the clock, at Guadalcanal and other battles throughout the war, reporting casualties and bringing up needed supplies. Praised for their skill, speed and accuracy throughout the war, the code talkers earned life-long respect from their fellow marines.

"Just to be in the presence of one of these guys is a privilege," said Tom Potenza, a member of the Marine Corps League. "Using the code they were able to communicate at a point that messages were not normally sent and that saved hundreds and thousands of lives."

Despite the respect and acknowledgement by fellow marines, it took six decades for the government to acknowledge their contribution to the country. On Sept. 17, 1992, Nez and the four of the surviving original 29 recruits were invited to Washington D.C. and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The Navajo code talkers that were trained following were awarded the Congressional Silver Medal.

"When I came out of the service I thought many times if we were going to get any recognition," Nez said. "It took six decades to get recognition, but it is something I will always treasure. Freedom is something we all enjoy, and I will always treasure that, for myself, my people and the people of the U.S."

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