Former Navajo Code Talker dead at age 82

[Vulture6]

Rest in Peace, Marine


Former Navajo Code Talker dead at age 82

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 11, 2008 20:29:50 EST

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — A former member of the elite Navajo Code Talkers has died.

Merril Sandoval’s family says his health had been declining for the past year. He died Saturday at a Phoenix hospital. He was 82.

Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. has ordered flags flown at half-staff on the reservation from Wednesday until Saturday.

Sandoval enlisted in the Marine Corps in Santa Fe, N.M., in 1943. After boot camp in San Diego, Sandoval was transferred to Camp Pendleton to the Radio Communication School where he was trained as a Navajo Code Talker.

The Code Talkers were a group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during the war by transmitting messages in their native language.