Free Republic

Keith Little envisioned a place that would house the stories of the Navajo Code Talkers and where people could learn more about the famed World War II group who used their native language as a weapon. His family now hopes to carry out his dream of a museum in Arizona that also will hold wartime memorabilia and serve as a haven for veterans. Little, one of the most recognizable of the remaining Code Talkers, died of melanoma Tuesday night at a Fort Defiance hospital, said his wife, Nellie. He was 87. Little was 17 when he joined the U.S. Marine...

The "greatest generation" won the Second World War and on returning home built America into a super power -- a beacon of freedom. Now those Americans are in their 80s and 90s. One of them is former Navajo "code talker" Chester Nez --　the subject of a recent article in The Albuquerque Journal, "The Last Code Talker." Now 90 years old, Nez is "the last living member of the U.S. Marine Corps 382nd Platoon, comprised of 29 Navajos who developed a secret code the Japanese were never able to decipher," noted the Journal. Some 430 bilingual Navajo Americans (fluent in English...

CAMP VERDE, Ariz. – A member of an elite group of Marines who developed a code based on their native language during World War II has died. Lloyd Oliver's death Wednesday means that only one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers survives. Oliver's nephew, Lawrence, says his uncle died at a hospice center in the Phoenix suburb of Avondale, where he had been staying for about three weeks. He was 88 years old.

By proclamation of President Ronald Reagan, this day in 1982 became the first National Navaho Code Talkers Day. The code talkers rendered an invaluable service as the U.S. Marines during WWII. They used their native language as a military code, which the Japanese failed to break. Some four hundred Navaho Indians were code talkers, with thirteen being killed in action. President Reagan said: "Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate August 14, 1982, as National Navaho Code Talkers Day, a day dedicated to all members of the Navaho Nation and to all...

Three rifle volleys echoed through the Hills Tuesday afternoon, bidding farewell to the nation’s last Oglala Lakota code talker. Clarence Wolf Guts, an 86-year-old World War II veteran, was laid to rest in the Black Hills National Cemetery with the Lord’s Prayer and drum beat resonating inside the rock rotunda. A procession of 30 vehicles -- including one white Chevy Impala with the sign “We love you Grandpa Clarence, forever in our heart.” -- followed a white van that carried Wolf Guts from a traditional Lakota ceremony in Wanblee to Sturgis. A crowd of over 60 traveled to pay their...

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Lemuel Bahe Yazzie, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, has died. He was 91. Navajo Nation officials said Wednesday that Yazzie, who lived in Whitecone, Ariz., died at his home last Friday. Tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. ordered flags on the Navajo Nation to be flown at half-staff from June 3-6 in honor of Yazzie. Yazzie joined the Marines in September 1944.

NEW YORK - The famed Navajo Code Talkers, the elite Marine unit whose unbreakable code stymied the Japanese in World War II, fear their legacy will die with them. Only about 50 of the 400 Code Talkers are believed to be still alive, most living in the Navajo Nation reservation that spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many are frail or ill, with little time left to tell the world about their wartime contribution. But on Wednesday, 13 of the Code Talkers are coming to New York City to participate for the first time in the nation's largest Veterans Day...

The FReeper Canteen Presents….. ~ National Navajo Code Talkers Day! ~ Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Peter Pace (left), US Marine Corps, talks with Navajo Code Talkers after they presented him with a Navajo blanket in the Pentagon on Aug 10, 2007. Code Talkers were Native American Marines who served in World War II and developed a communications code based on their native language. DoD photo by Staff Sgt D Myles Cullen, US Air Force. (Released) Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies’ militaryand family members of the above.Honoring...

<p>PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - Willard Varnell Oliver, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, died Wednesday. He was 88.</p> <p>Lawrence Oliver said his father died at the Northern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System Hospital in Prescott, Ariz. He had been declining health for the past two years.</p>

Congratulations to the Navajo Code Talkers for a Job Well Done ,On this National Code Talkers Day, From What I understand there are only a Few Left Surviving

DURANT, Okla. -- Not many Choctaw Indians can speak their ancient tongue anymore.As was the case in many tribes, the Choctaw elders wanted their children to speak the white man's language, while the U.S. government tried hard to eradicate it on its own."Choctaw was all I could talk until I was 9 years old," said Bertram Bobb, 83, one of the tribe's elders. "But I can't speak it fluently anymore. Not too many can."There was a time -- many years ago now -- when the Choctaw language not only served as a cultural touchstone but also saved lives.Although few people...

CAMP MABRY, Texas (Sept. 6, 2007) – The Texas Military Forces will honor the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I during events here at the Brig. Gen. John C.L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum Sept. 16 beginning at 2 p.m. Less well known than the Navajo Code Talkers in the Pacific theater of operations in World War II, the Choctaws pioneered the U.S. military’s use of a Native American language to baffle enemy code-breakers.Lt. Gen. Charles G. Rodriguez, Adjutant General of Texas, will present 18 Lone Star Medals of Valor to the families of the Choctaw Code Talkers. In...

     The FReeper Canteen Presents National Navajo Code Talkers Day     Welcome to the FReeper Canteen! It's great to have you with all of us!! Thank you to all of our Troops, Veterans, and their families for allowing us to entertain you!        The Navajo Code Talkers received no recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968. In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14 "National Code Talkers Day."During World War II (1939-1945), the U.S. Marines trained Navajo soldiers as code talkers....

He became a legend in the Army, as well as in his native Comanche tribe in Oklahoma. Charles Chibitty, 84, the last of the Comanche “code talkers,” died July 20 this year in Tulsa, Okla. He also reportedly was the last hereditary chief of the Comanche, having descended from the great leader, Chief Ten Bears. “Code talkers” is the term used to describe Soldiers from various Indian tribes who communicated on radios, telephones and telegraph during World Wars I and II. They spoke in their own languages and dialects, many of which were not written down and all of which...

OKLAHOMA CITY - Charles Chibitty, the last survivor of the Comanche code talkers who used their native language to transmit messages for the Allies in Europe during World War II, has died. He was 83. Chibitty, who had been residing at a Tulsa nursing home, died Wednesday, said Cathy Flynn, administrative assistant in the Comanche Nation tribal chairman's office. The group of Comanche Indians from the Lawton area were selected for special duty in the U.S. Army to provide the Allies with a language that the Germans could not decipher. Like the larger group of Navajo Indians who performed a...

The last Comanche Code-Talker, Charles Chibitty has passed away. He died at around 4 p.m. today in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was 83 years of age, just shy of 84. Charlie had been ill and in the hospital for several months. He was a friend to many of us and a good father, husband and soldier.

HADITHA, AL ANBAR, Iraq (June 29, 2005) -- In many past wars, Native Americans have made great contributions to keeping America safe. The Navajo Code talkers are among the most memorable. Now four members of the Navajo Nation from Arizona and New Mexico are writing a new chapter of war heroes for their people and the Marine Corps by fighting in the war on terrorism and remembering their ancestors. “I’m proud to be fighting for my country in the best fighting force we have to offer,” said Sgt. Leighton Redhouse, a squad leader with Weapons Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines....

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Retired Major Gen. Hugh F. Foster Jr., who trained Comanche code talkers for the Army in World War II, has died. He was 86. Foster, of Doylestown Township, died Dec. 13 at home. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1941, he joined the 4th Signal Company of the 4th Infantry Division, responsible for maintaining Army communications. He was assigned in September 1941 to train 17 Comanche soldiers as code talkers at Fort Benning, Ga.

TAMA, Iowa (AP) -- Frank Sanache, one of the last of the "code talkers" from the Meskwaki Indian tribe, died Saturday. He was 86.

Attorney secures medal, benefits for Navajo WWII vet SAN ANTONIO -- Fifty-nine years after he narrowly survived the Battle of Iwo Jima, Navajo code talker Teddy Draper Sr. finally has been awarded the Purple Heart by the U.S. Marine Corps. The 80-year-old Arizonan also has won long-overdue veterans benefits for the hearing loss, temporary blindness and other injuries he sustained from a mortar blast in the 1945 battle in Japan. And he credits both recent developments to his pro bono attorney, George P. Parker Jr., of the San Antonio law office of Houston-based Bracewell & Patterson. Their chance encounter in...

Code Talkers' Families Honored On Their Behalf Records Confirm Identities Of 9 Code Talkers POSTED: 9:01 a.m. MST November 12, 2003 WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- The families of nine Navajo Code Talkers in World War II received Congressional Silver Medals on behalf of their loved ones Tuesday. None of the nine men, recently confirmed by records as Code Talkers, is still alive. Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, of Arizona, presented the medals during a Veterans Day ceremony in Window Rock. The Code Talkers were U.S. Marines who helped defeat the Japanese in World War II by using an unbreakable radio...

Samuel J. Smith, Sr., left, and William Toledo are honored during Wednesday's dedication of the Key Management Infrastructure Building on Fort Huachuca. The two former Marines were Navajo Code Talkers and used their native language to transmit messages making it impossible for the enemy to decipher. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) FORT HUACHUCA -- William Toledo, his voice still strong for a 79-year-old, sang a song every Marine knows, the one that starts with the words "from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli." Toledo sang the Marine Hymn in English and then in Navajo. It was Navajo, his native tongue,...

<p>Robert Yazzie displays his Congressional Silver Medal for Distinguished Service, which he received yesterday for his role as a Navajo ''code talker'' during World War II.</p> <p>BILLY KINGSLEY Jay Drescher of Franklin performs a Native American dance at the Whitland Avenue Fourth of July celebration in honor of Navajo ''code talker'' Robert Yazzie.</p>

<p>MESSAGES: 'Gini,' the Navajo word for chicken hawk, meant dive bomber.</p> <p>Shortly into World War II, breaking the American military code was like solving a daily crossword puzzle for Japanese cryptographers.</p> <p>That was when the U.S. Marine Corps turned to the Navajo Nation to recruit fluent young Navajo speakers to devise a code to stump the Japanese enemy in the Pacific.</p>