an american original: chester nez
Just days before D-Day, one of the most fascinating stories of the war comes to an end.
In 1942, Chester Nez was a 10th grader in boarding school. 6 weeks later, he was serving. His first message: "Japanese machine gun on your right flank. Destroy."
When Nez was a kid, the US government took Native American children off reservations and put them into boarding schools, where they were forbidden to speak their native languages, and were abused severely if caught. But, being five percenters, they still whispered Navajo to each other, keeping the language alive — which later benefited that same government, and all of us, by forming the basis of the only unbroken oral code in modern warfare.
The Navajo Code Talkers took part in every Marine assault in the Pacific war, flawlessly.
His mission was secret. Even his family and fellow Navajo didn't know what he did, because the mission wasn't declassified for over two decades. Only in 1968 did the truth come out.
At age 90, he wrote a bestseller. At 91, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Just today, he died, the last of the original Navajo Code Talkers. Thank you, Mr. Nez, for a remarkable life and example.
In 1942, Chester Nez was a 10th grader in boarding school. 6 weeks later, he was serving. His first message: "Japanese machine gun on your right flank. Destroy."
When Nez was a kid, the US government took Native American children off reservations and put them into boarding schools, where they were forbidden to speak their native languages, and were abused severely if caught. But, being five percenters, they still whispered Navajo to each other, keeping the language alive — which later benefited that same government, and all of us, by forming the basis of the only unbroken oral code in modern warfare.
The Navajo Code Talkers took part in every Marine assault in the Pacific war, flawlessly.
His mission was secret. Even his family and fellow Navajo didn't know what he did, because the mission wasn't declassified for over two decades. Only in 1968 did the truth come out.
At age 90, he wrote a bestseller. At 91, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Just today, he died, the last of the original Navajo Code Talkers. Thank you, Mr. Nez, for a remarkable life and example.
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