80 years later, Navajo Code Talker marks group's early days

80 years later, Navajo Code Talker marks group's early days

PHOENIX (AP) — It's been 80 years since the earliest Navajo Code Talkers joined the Marines, transmitting messages using a cipher based on their then-unwritten native language to confound Japanese military cryptologists all over World War II — accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Thomas H. Begay, one of the last living members of the group, still remembers the struggle.

"It was the hardest thing to learn," the 98-year-old Begay said Sunday at a Phoenix rite marking the anniversary. "But we were intelligent to grow a cipher that couldn't exist broken by the enemy of the United States of America."

Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by the U.S. Marines to labour for while Code Talkers all over the war. Begay is one of trio who is still living to talk concerning it.

The Code Talkers participated inside all assaults the Marines led inside the Pacific from 1942 to 1945 including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Iwo Jima.

They sent thousands of messages lacking mistake on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics accompanied by every one one other accompanied by other communications crucial to the war's eventual outcome.

President Ronald Reagan established Navajo Code Talkers Day inside 1982 accompanied by every one one other accompanied by the Aug. 14 holiday honors all the tribes associated accompanied by the war effort.

It's excessively an Arizona condition holiday accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Navajo Nation holiday on the vast uncertainty that occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico accompanied by every one one other accompanied by southeastern Utah.

Begay accompanied by every one one other accompanied by his family came from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Phoenix for Sunday's event at the Wesley Bolin Plaza where a Navajo Code Talker sculpture is displayed.

80 years later, Navajo Code Talker marks group's early days