Frank Pallone: “In May 1942 twenty-nine Navajos entered boot camp and later went to Camp Pendleton to develop a code that used the…”

“In May 1942 twenty-nine Navajos entered boot camp and later went to Camp Pendleton to develop a code that used the Navajo language as its basis. They worked at finding new words or meaning for military terms, which had no actual Navajo translation as well as an alphabetical way of spelling out other words. So began the career of the Navajo Code Talkers who were the secret weapon of the Marine Corps against Japan. Their unbreakable code would play a vital part in the United States ability to win World War II. The man credited for the idea of a code based on Navajo language goes to Philip Johnston, an engineer in Los Angeles. His father had been a Protestant missionary; therefore, as a child he moved to a Navajo reservation where he grew up and learned the culture and the language. Knowing that the Navajo language had been orally handed down through the centuries was Johnston's main argument for this code. He argued that it was a system that would not have to be changed on a regular basis, and because it had never been written down it could not result in falling into the hands of the enemy. Ironically, Navajos were subjected to alienation in their own homeland and discouraged from speaking their language yet they still came willingly forward and used their language to defend their country and help develop the most successful military code of the time. The code was such a success that the Department of Defense kept the Code secret for 23 years after World War II.”