Navajo Code Talkers to march in NYC Veteran’s Day Parade

About 50 of the original 400 Navajo Code Talkers survive today, and 13 of the former elite Marines will march in New York City’s Veteran’s Day Parade.

From the Star News:

The young Navajo Marines, using secret Navajo language-encrypted military terms, helped the U.S. prevail at Iwo Jima and other World War II Pacific battles, serving in every Marine assault in the South Pacific between 1942-1945. Military commanders said the code, transmitted verbally by radio, helped save countless American lives and bring a speedier end to the war in the Pacific theater.

They were sworn to secrecy about their code, so complex that even other Navajo Marines couldn’t decipher it. Used to transmit secret tactical messages via radio or telephone, the code remained unbroken and classified for decades because of its potential postwar use.

“We were never told that our code was never decoded” or given identities of the original 29 Navajos who created it, said Keith Little, 85, who joined the Marines at 17 and remembers crouching in a bomb crater amid heavy fire on Iwo Jima.

“It was all covered by secrecy. We were constantly told not to talk about it,” said Little. The Code Talkers felt compelled to honor their secrecy orders, even after the code was declassified in 1968.

The Code Talkers not only saved innumerable lives on the battlefield, but also changed the course of the war.