The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII-includes the actual Navajo Code and rare photos.
Although more than 400 Navajos served in the military
during World War II as top-secret code talkers, even those fighting
shoulder to shoulder with them were not told of their covert
function. And, after the war, the Navajos were forbidden to speak of
their service until 1968, when the code was finally declassified. Of
the original twenty-nine Navajo code talkers, Chester Nez is the
only one still alive. The original twenty-nine were the men who
first devised the code, then proved it indispensable in combat.
In this memoir, the ninety-year-old Nez chronicles both his war
years and his life growing up on the Checkerboard Area of the Navajo
Reservation - the hard life that gave him the strength, both
physical and mental, to become a Marine. His story puts a living
face on the legendary men who developed what is still the only
unbroken code in modern warfare.
