Martin Heinrich: “I want to thank the gentleman from Arizona for pulling us together from around the four corners to honor these…”

“I want to thank the gentleman from Arizona for pulling us together from around the four corners to honor these incredible Native Americans, these incredible Americans, especially on this historic anniversary. And I'm certainly honored to join my colleagues tonight to honor the quiet valor of all the Navajo Code Talkers. Today, some six decades since their service during World War II, only one of the original 29 Code Talkers, Corporal Chester Nez, survives. And I am incredibly proud of Corporal Nez, who at the age of 90 resides in my congressional district in Albuquerque with his son Mike, his daughter-in-law Rita, and their children. Corporal Nez's story is much like the hundreds of Code Talkers who followed in his footsteps. He grew up on the Navajo Nation to parents who grew corn and pinto beans, kept goats and sheep. And he grew up in a time when Navajos were sharply mistreated and even unable to vote in our own elections in places throughout the Southwest. Yet in 1942, at the age of 18, he sprung into action and he joined the 382nd Platoon in a role that is largely credited with saving thousands of American lives. Along with the other 28 original Code Talkers, Corporal Nez developed a code from their unwritten language. You can find the code's explanation today in the index of his autobiography.…”