Posted: 12/8/2005 11:24:15 PM EDT
|
Well, kind of met one. My dad is in a rehab center after having cancer surgery. I took him to dinner in their dining room and there was a gentleman sitting across from us eating mashed stuff (yuck)with one hand, and when he finished the nurse came over talking to him giving him medication. She crushed it up for him and gave it to him in yogurt. I said "Oh, slipping him a Mickey huh?.. She said "Yep, Roy here needs his medication so he can get strong" .. I guess he had a stroke. He couldn't talk and one side was paralized. Then she said "You know Roy here was a Code Talker in World War II".. My eyes lit up and I smiled at him and said "A true American hero.. Thank you" and he gave me a slight smile (best he could) and was wheeled back to his room... Wish I could have had a conversation with him.. |
Hope your dad is going to be okay.  When I was doing some clinicals in a few of the hospitals around here, I made it a point to always thank them (Vets) for their service. You could tell it was something no one really did, but they were often very greatful for my interest and appreciation. It felt good. |
 
|
Was it the last Marine code talker or the last Army code talker? The USMC used Navajo's. They were made famous. The Army used Camanche's among others. They are not so famous. The code talkers from WWI even less so. "Code Talkers Use of the Native Indian Tongue for Secure Communications [Extracted from OCMH Study 57, Military-Connected Contributions of American Indians to the Culture Heritage of the Nation, Prepared by William Gardner Bell] To confound the enemy, American forces in both World Wars used Indian personnel and their unique languages to insure secure communications. In World War I in France, the 142d Infantry Regiment had a company of Indians who spoke 26 different languages or dialects, only four or five of which had been reduced to writing. Two Indian officers were selected to supervise a communications system staffed by Choctaw Indians. They were used in the regiment's operations in October 1918, in the Chufilly-Chardeny zone, transmitting in their native tongue a variety of open. voice messages, relating to unit movements, which the enemy, who was completely surprised in the action, obviously could not break. In World War II in both major theaters of war, the U. S. Army used Indians in its signal communications operations. A group of 24 Navajos was assembled to handle telephone communications, using voice codes in their native tongue, between the Air Commander in the Solomon Islands and various airfields in the region. The U. S. Marine Corps also used Navajo code talkers extensively in the Pacific Theater. And in Europe, the 4th Signal Company of the Army's 4th Infantry Division was assigned 16 Comanches for employment as voice radio operators to transmit and receive messages in their own unwritten language." |
