Code Talker

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez with Judith Avila   320 pp.

This book is just what the title says. It is the memoir of the last of the Marine Corps Navajo Code Talkers who were instrumental in helping the U.S. defeat the Japanese in the brutal war of the Pacific during WWII. Chester Nez was born in the Checkerboard area near the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. As a child he herded sheep and was a witness to the U.S. Government's Navajo Livestock "Reduction" in which 90% of his family's sheep and goat herd were burned alive by government agents. Nez was sent to boarding schools where the students were punished for speaking their native language. It was at one of those schools where young men were recruited for the Marine's secret project. Nez was one of the original twenty-nine Code Talkers who developed the unbreakable code based on everyday words used in the Navajo language but so complex only other code talkers could understand it. Navajo was chosen because it is not a written language and is extremely difficult for non-native speakers to learn. The talkers worked in pairs and lived through many battles, always having to stay in harm's way to relay coded critical messages and often working 36 hours without a break. The important part these men played during the war was kept classified for over 20 years. The story of Chester Nez at times heartbreaking and at others heartwarming. It is much more than just a war story.