Navaho Code Talkers
The first 29 Navajo code talker recruits are sworn in at Camp Wingate, New Mexico.
Image: National Archives
Over the course of 13 weeks, the code was developed, practiced, and committed to memory.
It grew into a sprawling dictionary, tailored for precise communication in every conceivable battlefield situation.
The code ranged from simple letters (“A” could be communicated as the Navajo words for ant, apple, or axe) to vehicles (Dive bomber = “chicken hawk,” submarine = “metal fish”) to direct or approximate translations of hundreds of verbs such as capture, escape, entrench, flank, halt, and target.
Once the code was complete, the code talkers became invaluable communications assets. As the war went on, some 400 Navajos were recruited and trained in the code.
We acted as coding machines, transmitting messages that would have taken a couple of hours in just a couple of minutes.
Chester Nez
Navaho Code Talkers
The first 29 Navajo code talker recruits are sworn in at Camp Wingate, New Mexico.
Image: National Archives
Over the course of 13 weeks, the code was developed, practiced, and committed to memory.
It grew into a sprawling dictionary, tailored for precise communication in every conceivable battlefield situation.
The code ranged from simple letters (“A” could be communicated as the Navajo words for ant, apple, or axe) to vehicles (Dive bomber = “chicken hawk,” submarine = “metal fish”) to direct or approximate translations of hundreds of verbs such as capture, escape, entrench, flank, halt, and target.
Once the code was complete, the code talkers became invaluable communications assets. As the war went on, some 400 Navajos were recruited and trained in the code.
We acted as coding machines, transmitting messages that would have taken a couple of hours in just a couple of minutes.
Chester Nez