Once, when the radio broke down and Nez had to run his message to another
location, he was detained for two hours by American troops who mistook him for a
Japanese soldier.
Three of the 29 original code talkers died in combat. Nez escaped injury. "Just
lucky," he said.
Four members of the original platoon had remained at Camp Elliott after the
initial training, to teach the code to other Navajo Marines. By the end of the
war, about 400 had been deployed overseas.
Nez said he ended his combat tour of duty and returned home before the assault
on Iwo Jima. As he left Guam, he watched the formation of the invasion armada,
which included replacement code talkers. In the first 48 hours of the battle,
the Navajos processed 800 messages without error. Recalled one Marine officer,
"Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."
For his part, Nez was assigned to an ordnance depot in Idaho. After the war, he
returned home to sheepherding and later pursued art lessons at the Bureau of
Indian Affairs' Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kan.
Finally, in 1968, he was allowed to tell his family about the role he had played
overseas.
Said his son, Michael: "As kids, we played army, and Dad never mentioned what he
had done. Finally he spoke up, matter-of-factly."
Until his retirement, Nez worked as a commercial painter in Albuquerque and, at
home, created his own artworks depicting Navajo culture. None of them depicted
war.
He is eager, Nez said, to see three other surviving code pioneers today in
Washington: John Brown Jr. of Crystal, N.M.; Allen Dale June of West Valley
City, Utah; and Lloyd Oliver of Phoenix. The fifth survivor, Joe Palmer of
Leupp, Ariz., is in poor health and was unable to attend today's ceremony.
The code talkers who followed Nez and his buddies into combat will receive the
Congressional Silver Medal later this year.
The story of the Navajo code talkers is now the stuff of lore. A G.I. Joe Navajo
Code Talker action figure, speaking seven Navajo phrases, was released last
year; a motion picture about the secret program, "Windtalkers," is being readied
by MGM for November release.
Nez said he is thrilled by all the attention. But mostly, he said, he is happy
that he was able to contribute to the war effort, his nation--and his Navajo
people.
"It is an honor to be one of the 29," he said. "At one time, I thought we would
never be honored, but I hoped. We helped win the war. This is important for the
Navajo nation."
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Times researcher Belen Rodriguez in Denver contributed to this story.
Copyright 2001, Los Angeles Times