Andrea Joy Campbell: “Madam President earlier today I was honored to join President Bush, four of the five surviving Navajo Code Talkers…”

“Madam President earlier today I was honored to join President Bush, four of the five surviving Navajo Code Talkers, their families, and the families of all the Code Talkers in a ceremony in which the President awarded the Code Talkers the Congressional Gold Medal. The ceremony also included other members of Congress, Indian tribal leaders, and dignitaries from around the Nation. For far too many Americans, bred on cynicism and hopelessness, these men remind us what real American heroes are all about. It is unfortunate that we could not have recognized these men and their contributions sooner than this. Think of this--just 77 years before World War II, the grandfathers of these heroes were forced at gunpoint with 9,000 other Navajos from their homeland and marched 300 miles through the burning desert. For four long years the Navajo people were interned at the Bosque Redondo. For these men and their comrades to rise above that injustice in American history and put their lives on the line speaks of their character and their patriotism. Just as the Japanese were never able to break the Navajo Code, it is also a mystery why it took so long for our Nation to recognize the critical role the Code Talkers played in achieving victory in the Pacific.”