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Navajo Code Talkers

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Navajo Code Talkers
World War II / Navajo Code Talkers

The Navajo of the Southwestern U.S. are the largest Indian Reservation and most recognized tribe in all of the United States of America. It was based on the Navajo Language, one of the hardest languages to learn. Children who lived on the Reservation were not allowed to speak their own language at school but even that didn't stop them; they always used it at home or any other place but if children were caught speaking any other language besides English, they had their mouths washed out with soap. Disobeying this rule came in handy though when the Marine Corps came looking for recruits to volunteer as "code talkers". They created Navajo words for English Military Terms. The Code consisted of 411 terms. Helping
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These selected marines served in all of the six marine divisions, helping in any way by transmitting information about the needed tactics, troop movements, orders and etc. all by telephone and radio. The young marines handled all the major battlefield communications. Not one was converted by the Japanese anytime during the battle for Iwo Jima alone. The code talkers were very successful in all the 800 sent messages.(Greenspan, History) The more the history started to expand everything grew for virtually panic- free service. As of the year 1945, there was up to 450 trained navajo code talkers. The Navajo tongue remained useful during the remaining bits of the war. This delayed well earned recognition of the code talkers until the last years. America’s victory in the South Pacific would have been much more difficult and hard to grasp without the Navajo Code Talkers. Leading to the successful warfare depends on how effective communication among the fighting units. The enemy must be kept from interfering and listening to the coded messages that were being sent. Coding information so that it can only be decoded by the person who has the know-how on decoding messages. Codes have often been deciphered in the military history. Many Native Americans in the World War 2 used their everyday tribal languages to help practice. There was actually different tribes that have also got the opportunity to serve. The Navajos, Comanches, Hopis, and Meskwakis had helped develop and use special codes based on all their languages. These became known as Type One Codes. On the battlefield, the work of the sent codes was to be extremely serious.(Greenspan, History) Being able to keep the messages secret could also make the difference between winning and losing a battle or on how it affects how many lives were to be saved or how many

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