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Related: About this forumNavajo Code Talker Teddy Draper Sr. dies at the age of 96
Only 10 Navajo Code Talkers from World War II remain alive after Teddy Draper Sr. died Thursday morning in Prescott, according to the Navajo Nation.
Draper, 96, served in the 5th Marine Division, fighting in Iwo Jima and earning a Purple Heart and a Congressional Silver Medal, a release from the Nation said.
Draper continued his work to preserve the Navajo language after his time in the military, teaching classes at Rough Rock Community High School and producing materials used to teach Navajo language in schools.
The Navajo Code Talkers used our language to save this country during World War II," Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathan Nez said in the release. This is an example of the importance of passing down our language to our children. We are grateful and remember Teddy Draper not only for his efforts on the battlefield but in the classroom as well."
Read more: http://www.kvoa.com/story/37072475/navajo-code-talker-teddy-draper-sr-dies-at-the-age-of-96
Xipe Totec
(43,888 posts)O, Giver of Life,
you write with flowers,
you give color with song,
you make shade with song,
for those who must live on earth.
Later, you will destroy
the eagles,
the tigers
for here on earth
we live only in your book of paintings.
With black ink,
you will obliterate
what was brotherhood,
community,
nobility.
Your shadow falls on those who must live on earth.
Romances of the Lords of New Spain
Narraback
(648 posts)Semper Fi
You and your Code Taking brothers saved a lot of Marines.
Rest In Peace.
shraby
(21,946 posts)leanforward
(1,076 posts)Irish_Dem
(46,520 posts)I would love to know more about them.
snort
(2,334 posts)Windtalkers (2002).
braddy
(3,585 posts)"" The name code talkers is strongly associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater. Code talking, however, was pioneered by Choctaw Indians serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. These soldiers are referred to as Choctaw code talkers.
Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating.""
World War I
In France during World War I, the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division, had a company of Indians who spoke 26 languages and dialects. Two Indian officers were selected to supervise a communications system staffed by 18 Choctaw. The team transmitted messages relating to troop movements and their own tactical plans in their native tongue. Soldiers from other tribes, including the Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Osage and Yankton Sioux also were enlisted to communicate as code talkers. Previous to their arrival in France, the Germans had broken every American code used, resulting in the deaths of many Soldiers. However, the Germans never broke the Indians code, and these Soldiers became affectionately known as code talkers.
World War II
During World War II, the Army used Indians in its signal communications operations in both the European and Pacific theaters of operations. Student code talkers were instructed in basic military communications techniques. The code talkers then developed their own words for military terms that never existed in their own native tongue. For instance, the world for colonel was translated to silver eagle, fighter plane became hummingbird, minesweeper became beaver, half-track became race track, and pyrotechnic became fancy fire.
The Army and Marine Corps used a group of 24 Navajo code talkers in the Pacific Theater, who fought in the many bloody island campaigns. In North Africa, eight Soldiers from the Meskwaki tribe in Iowa served as code talkers in the 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Division. In Europe, the 4th Signal Company, 4th Infantry Division, was assigned 17 Comanche code talkers. From the D-Day landings at Normandy in June 1944, to the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge, they kept the lines of communications secure.
Soldiers from other tribes, including the Kiowa, Winnebago, Chippewa, Creek, Seminole, Hopi, Lakota, Dakota, Menominee, Oneida, Pawnee, Sac, Fox and Choctaw served during the war. Some were killed and wounded and at least one was taken prisoner. As a testament to their professionalism, the enemy was never able to break the code talkers communications.
Many of the code talkers continued in their military careers, serving during the Korean and Vietnam wars."
Irish_Dem
(46,520 posts)In WWI the Germans had broken every American code, resulting in the deaths of many soldiers, but the Germans never were able to break the Indian codes. The code talkers had to adapt their language to military usage. They were in the field and in harm's way. So they were smart, clever and brave.
This is a compelling, remarkable and important story. I don't understand why it has not been told to a wider audience.
But we just found out via "Hidden Figures" the role Black women played in NASA.
Until recently, history was written by white males?