The Code Talkers

From ancient Egyptians to Julius Caesar to Mary Queen of Scots to modern times, nations, kings and their armed forces have always had an overarching need for secure methods of communications. During World War I, the United States Army experimented, with limited success, with the use of Native American tribal languages, such as the Comanche and Choctaw, in the place of codes (Paul 7). The use of ancient languages in modern times had also been attempted by various governments, but the risk of any national understanding the language chosen would compromise the entire code. During World War II, the Allied forces cracked the Enigma, the main encoding system for Nazi Germany and also the codes Red and Purple used by Imperial Japan. The need for an unbreakable code was absolutely necessary for frontline action. However, this code had to be quick, effective, and simple yet complex enough so the enemy would not be able to decipher the vital messages being sent. Then the Navajo code talkers were formed, an elite unit in the United States Marine Corps (Pincock 119). This spoken code, however, would be unique, a code within a language characterized by guttural noises, grunts, and complex inflections that are highly difficult to learn after a certain age. A perfect, unbreakable radio code was born. The Navajo code talkers started fairly late in the war, being formed in 1942 (Paul 10). Their complex language was brought to the attention of Marine leaders by a man named Phillip Johnston (Pincock 119). He had grown up around the Navajo from a very young age due to his father being a missionary for Native American reservations. Once the Marine Corps saw the potential for a speedy radio code that could be very difficult to break they took advantage of the information to form a special unit. In the beginning, twenty-nine Navajos were selected, with strict requirements, including age, health, and schooling (Paul 10-12). The Marines needed educated men for this task. By the end of