Army Officer-Hi Navajo Family, Good Morning! Can you talk to us about the Navajo Code Talkers, please?
Navajo- Good Morning, I am very happy that you have invited me to be part of your program today. We were able to prevent disaster during the Saipan battles and we are known as “The Navajo Code Talkers”

Army Officer-Who were the Navajo Code Talkers?
Navajo-The Navajo were unlike anyone else. They were used to deprivation, since many lived in rural log cabins and could survive for long days at a time without any food. It was impossible for the enemies to find out the Navajo Code. By October of 1942, twenty-seven of the original Code Talkers were sent to Guadalcanal to be part of the Allied offensive.

Army Officer- How long did it took to accept the new Codes?
Navajo-Too long, so we decided that Navajo people would be the one that will be sending and receiving messages. I got a return message from four units in about four and a half minutes. The other one would still be trying to decode what I said. We Navajos were more efficient.

Army Officer- Who had the idea of Navajo Codes?
Navajo- In February of 1942, Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran, got the idea. Johnston new a little bit about that language. It was an extremely difficult language, so the Japanese would never break our language.

Army Officer-Can you explain us a little bit of Navajo Code?
Navajo- Because Navajo is an unwritten language, sending messages would be much simple. The Code Talkers would have to memorize the code and use speak it to communicate with each other. The enemies wouldn’t had the machines that would break the codes nor papers that could be stolen or broken. It was really a great help.

Army Officer-How did you use create messages?
Navajo- The Navajo Code Talkers created messages by first translating Navajo words into English, then using the first letter of each English word to break the meaning.

Army Officer-Can you tell us some examples?
Navajo- The letter "A," would be "wol-la-chee" (ant), "be-la-sana," (apple), or "tse-nill" (ax.), another example is the word America, for example, was "Ne-he-mah" (Our mother). Submarine became "besh-lo" (iron fish).

Army Officer-How should the words be?
Navajo- They should be logically connected to the military term, be creative, short, and easy to memorize. Also have a distinct sound that could be heard because of static, and have to be break for the enemies.

Army Officer-Thanks a lot for your visit. Hope to see you soon!
Navajo-Thanks for your invitation.

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