One of the last living Navajo Code talkers shares his story

They were something else!!

There's not praise high enough for the contributions these gentlemen gave to the Marines and the rest of the US military during WWII. Specific to the Marines, they were widely lauded by the leadership as being critical to the victory at Iwo Jima.

Many have heard about the code talkers, but two items about them were not widely appreciated outside of the military when people hear about them.

The first is that they weren't just talking in a language that the Axis forces didn't understand. They actually were "double encrypting" by using Navajo words to represent military terms (word/phrase substitution).

The second was the speed in which they were able to send encrypted messages. A code talker could communicate a secure message to another code talker in a few minutes. That same message could take and hour or more using another method.

Semper Fi Mr. McDonald!

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Peter MacDonald, one of the last living Navajo Code Talkers, young men from the Navajo Nation who enlisted in the Marines during World War II. Their code, which used the Navajo language as a basis, was used by the U.S. military in the Pacific theater and was never broken by the Japanese."...