The Navajo Code Talkers aka Wind talkers served with the U.S Marine Corps in the Pacific theatre from 1942 until the end of the war. The Navajo language was the chosen language the U.S Government chose to help with WW2. They used words such as “Humming birds” for plane, and “Eggs” for bombs.
The name given to the Navajo Code Talkers is originally Wind Talkers. “The Navajo code was not the first attempt to use Native American languages to disguise military communications” (Lerner 264). The military went to every tribe such as the Sioux, Choctaw, and Crow but no luck came out of those tribes, due to the modern words being too hard to translate or say. “The son of a missionary, Phillip Johnston, was raised on the Navajo reservation and spoke the …show more content…
“Johnston initially proposed to recruit 200 Navajos” (Reilly 365). Phillip Johnston proposed that 200 Navajos should go to basic training but his proposal was denied. The Marines requested thirty because if things didn’t work out, not much time or money would have been spent. So, twenty-nine Navajos were selected and were sent to basic training in San Diego, California. “They were told they would be “specialists” and were officially designated as the 382nd Platoon, U.S. Marine Corps. Following their basic training, the Navajo Marines were moved to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California” (Reilly 366). In camp Pendleton, the 29 code talkers that were chosen developed a 2-part code. The first part consisted of a twenty-six-letter alphabet that used descriptive names for animals and birds, with the use of unusual letters like “q”, “x”, and “z” that wasn’t in the Navajo tongue until the language was an actual written language. The second part consisted of 211-word English vocabulary, in which a majority of Marines had to know because that was the only way to communicate. Success came and 83 more Navajos were assigned to Major General Alexander Vandergrift