Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Two years before that, mere months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an elite unit of Navajo-speaking code talkers was formed that did much to help US win the war in the Pacific. Yesterday, we lost Chester Nez, the last of the original 29 who signed up for this duty... He didnt have to volunteer; barred from voting, Native Americans were barely considered citizens. But Nezs heritage spoke louder than decades of rejection. I reminded myself that my Navajo people had always been warriors, protectors, he wrote years later. In that there was honor. I would concentrate on being a warrior, on protecting my homeland. Nez, the last of the original 29 code talkers, died Wednesday in Albuquerque. He was 93 and had kidney failure, said Judith Avila, who helped Nez write his 2011 memoir, Code Talker. In 2001 he received the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress highest civilian honor, from President George W. Bush. ... I worried every day that I might make an error that cost American lives, Nez told CNN a few years ago. But our code was the only code in modern warfare that was never broken. The Japanese tried, but they couldnt decipher it. Not even another Navajo could decipher it if he wasnt a code talker. R.I.P. Chester Nez -- you served your country very well indeed.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 14:41:29 +0000
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