Secret Weapon – Navajo Code Talkers by Kirk Ellis

Over 500 Navajo served as Marines in the Pacific Theater of WW2. Among them were a specially trained group of radio operators known as \”Code Talkers,\” who used their native language to create the only unbroken oral code in modern military history. Fewer than a half-dozen survivors remain alive today, but their story continues to inspire Native American youth of all tribal affiliations. Frequent PSAM presenter Kirk Ellis chronicles the story of the Code Talkers from basic training in Camp Pendleton in May 1942 to their heroic service in Iwo Jima three years later, where they sent 800 messages in two days without a single error. \”Were it not for the Navajos,\’ said one signal officer, \”the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.\”

Presenter: Kirk Ellis