by Chester Nez
declaration of war against Japan
diversity of
Great Depression
Japanese vs. American soldiers
nationalizing Japanese assets in
Pearl Harbor attack by Japan
POWs treatment by
red artillery tracers of
September 11 terrorist attacks
South Pacific strategy of
World War I,
wounded, never abandoning
See also Begay, Roy (code talker); casualties; code talkers (Navajo code); Marines (U.S.); Navy (U.S.); Nez, Chester; Tsinajnnie, Francis (code talker); World War II
“United States of America” (Ne-he-mah)
University of Kansas
Unsung Heroes of World War II (Durrett)
USS Lurline (ocean liner)
Vandergrift, Alexander (General)
Veterans’ Administration Hospital, Albuquerque
Vogel, Clayton B. (Major General)
Wake Island
“walking in beauty,”
Walley, Robert (code talker)
war experiences impact on Chester
warrior tradition of Navajos
“Washing-done” (government employees)
Washington, George (President)
“water” (tó)
wedding and white man’s work
West (e’e’aah)
Westerner, The (movie)
Where Two Waters Meet people
white settlers, fighting
Willie, John (code talker)
Window Rock, Arizona
Windtalkers (film)
witchcraft belief, Navajos
With the Old Breed (Sledge)
“woman who fights a battle in a circle” (Biníshiit Baa). See Nez, Dora (Chester’s sister)
World War I,
World War II
Allied forces
atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Axis powers
Bataan Death March
Battle of Empress Augusta Bay
Battle of Guadalcanal
Battle of Midway
Battle of the Coral Sea
Battle of the Java Sea
bombing of Tokyo
combat fatigue
“million-dollar” wounds
Operation Cartwheel
Operation Forager
Operation Stalemate
Operation Watchtower/Operation Shoestring
surrender of Germany
surrender of Japan
veterans and Korean War
See also casualties; code talkers (Navajo code); Guadalcanal; Japan; Marines; United States of America
“worst battle of South Pacific war,”
Wuhan, China
yá’ át’ ééh greeting
Yazzie, Felix (code talker)
Yazzie, Robert
Yazzie, William (William Dean Wilson) (code talker)
Ye’ii mural painted by Chester
Z, “zinc” (besh-do-tliz)
Zeros (Japanese)
My dad, D’ent Nez, a very tall man
Courtesy of Chester Nez
My sister, Dora, dressed for a pow wow
Courtesy of Chester Nez
View from Grandmother’s hogan, Chichiltah
Courtesy of Michael Nez
Red rocks with sheep corral
on Grandmother’s land
Courtesy of Judith Avila
Grandmother’s summer-
house
Courtesy of Judith Avila
A hogan with its dome caved in, still standing on Grandmother’s land where I grew up
Courtesy of Michael Nez
The original 29. Five are missing.
(Front row): William Yazzie, Frank Pete, me (Chester Nez), Benjamin Cleveland, Allen Dale
June (Second row): John Benally, John Brown, Jr., Roy Begay, Charlie Begay, Nelson
Thompson (Third row): Eugene Crawford, Wilsie Bitsie, Cosey Brown, John Chee, Lloyd
Oliver, Jack Nez, Carl Gorman (Fourth Row): Alfred Leonard, Oscar Ilthma, George
Dennison, James Dixon, Harry Tsosie, Johnny Manuelito, Samuel Begay
An unknown relative of one of the recruits took this photo
Me in California, a Marine recruit
Courtesy of Chester Nez
Navajo Marine Platoon 382—First 29
(Front row): Frank Pete, Corp. L .P. Kohl, Sgt. L. J. Stephenson, Corp. R. J. Hays, Wilsie
Bitsie (Second row): Chester Nez, Eugene Crawford, John Brown, Jr., Cosey S. Brown, John
Benally, William D. Yazzie (later changed name to William Dean Wilson), Benjamin
Cleveland, Nelson Thompson (Third row): Lloyd Oliver, Charlie Y. Begay, William McCabe,
Oscar Ilthma, David Curley, Lowell Damon, Balmer Slowtalker (later changed name to Joe
Palmer), Alfred Leonard, Allen Dale June (Fourth row): James Dixon, Roy Begay, John
Manuelito, Harry Tsosie, George Dennison, Carl N. Gorman, Samuel Begay, John Chee, Jack
Nez, John Willie
Official Marine Corps Photo
Lloyd Oliver, a good man. Other than myself, the only of the original 29 code talkers still living as of February, 2011.
Official Marine Corps Photo #57876
Code Talkers Wilsie Bitsie and Eugene
Crawford at ease
Official Marine Corps Photo #61431
Code Talker William Yazzie
Official Marine Corps Photo #146005
Code Talkers Oscar Ilthma, Jack Nez, and Carl Gorman taking a photo break.
Official Marine Corps Photo #82619
Code Talkers Carl Gorman and Jack Nez keep watch.
Official Marine Corps Photo #83714
Guadalcanal, flooded Marine camp
Official Marine Corps Photo #74085
Bougainville, knee-high in mud
Official Marine Corps Photo “67151
Guam, another beach landing
Official Marine Corps Photo #88089
Peleliu, U.S. planes bomb Japanese forces hidden in the hills
Official Marine Corps Photo #97977
Peleliu, an island made desolate by war
Official Marine Corps Photo “96764
Jack Nez (from the original 29)
and me after the war
Courtesy of Chester Nez
Francis Tsinajnnie and me after
the war
Courtesy of Chester Nez
Relaxed in Tuba City
Courtesy of Chester Nez
Philip Johnston, the man who suggested a code based on the Navajo language
Official Marine Corps Photo
A posed shot taken in the service
Courtesy of Chester Nez
My wife, Ethel Catron, before we met
Courtesy of Chester Nez
Back from Korea, spending some time
with Ethel
Courtesy of Chester Nez
Here we are on the steps of Saint
Michael’s Catholic Church.
Courtesy of Chester Nez
Proud dad with my two oldest boys, Michael
and Stanley
Courtesy of Chester Nez
My sons, Michael, Stanley, and Ray
Courtesy of Chester Nez
One of the Ye’ii figures I painted in the VA
Chapel, Albuquerque
Courtesy of Latham Nez
President Bush and I admire my gold
medal.
Courtesy of Shawnia Nez Whitfield
I salute President George W. Bush when he gives me the Congressional Gold Medal.
White House Photo, Courtesy of Chester Nez
Here I am with Allen Dale June, Lloyd Oliver, John Brown, Jr., and New Mexico senator Jeff
Bingaman.
Courtesy of Michael Nez
Imagine that! Blessing the Red Sox and tossing out the game ball.
Courtesy of the Boston Red Sox
I really liked actor Roger Willie
, who starred in Windtalkers.
Courtesy of Michael Nez
My son Mike and me at sister Dora’s place
Courtesy of Judith Avila
(Front row): grandaughter Shawnia Nez Whitfield, me, and Rita Nez (Michael’s wife). (Back row): grandson Michael Nez, great-grandson Emery Whitfield, grandson Latham Nez, and son Michael Nez
Courtesy of Michael Nez
1
Archives.gov. In 1942, during the early months of the United States’ involvement in World War II, the Navajo Reservation covered twenty-five thousand square miles.
2
The dive-bombers were designed for descents of sixty degrees from horizontal.
3
Acepilots.com: The USS South Dakota, a battleship that fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, had a standard displacement of thirty-five thousand tons and a length of 680 feet. It carried a main battery of nine guns arranged in triple turrets. The guns launched sixteen-inch-diameter shells. A secondary battery of sixteen five-inch-diameter guns was fixed amidships.
4
Budweiser was introduced in 1876; Pabst Blue Ribbon in 1893.
5
The “Original Twenty-nine” volunteers were joined by three other Navajo Marines, both in developing the code and in taking it into battle.
6
The history books all say twenty-nine, but I prefer the figure thirty-two since Ross Haskie, Wilson Price, and Felix Yazzie also helped immeasurably in the development of our code. Ross and Felix invaded Guadalcanal with us.
7
Roy is listed as one of the original twenty-nine code talkers, but for some reason, the literature I’ve read on us does not show him as one of the thirteen landing on Guadalcanal that November. However, he was definitely with us. Our mission was so secret that many records were classified, and after 1968 (when the code was declassified) reports of specific events often depended on fallible memories.
8
AcePilots.com. World War II Baltimore-class cruisers displaced 13,600 tons, had a length of 673 feet 5 inches, a beam measuring 70 feet 10 inches, a draft of 20 feet 6 inches, and a speed of 33 knots. Armaments consisted of nine guns that launched 8-inch-diameter shells, twelve guns launching 5-inch-diameter shells, forty-eight 40-millimeter antiaircraft guns, and twenty-four smaller, 20-millimeter, antiaircraft guns. They carried two aircraft and a crew of 1,142. (Thanks to Stephen Sherman.)
9
Ibid. The Fletcher-class destroyers displaced 2,100 tons, had a length of 376 feet 3 inches, a beam measuring 39 feet 8 inches, a draft of 13 feet, a speed of 36 knots, and a crew of 273. Armaments were five 5-inch-diameter guns and ten 21-inch-diameter torpedo tubes, as well as eight depth charges.
10
www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu. Higgins boats were also called LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, and Personnel). Their length was 36 feet 3 inches, beam 10 feet 10 inches. Displacement, when unloaded, was 18,000 pounds. Speed was 9 knots. They carried two machine guns and could deliver thirty-six fighting men, fully combat-equipped, to shore.
11
The names “juniper” and “cedar” are often used interchangeably. Only certain varieties of juniper, with a bluer, more delicate foliage, are actually considered to be a type of cedar (although not a “true cedar,” which is of genus cedrus not juniperus). Juniper and cedar bark was often used as diapers by the Navajo, after it was rubbed and crushed to soften it.
12
Although it is customary in many Navajo families to address one another by kinship terms (i.e., “my son” or “grandfather”) rather than by given name, when I was a child my family addressed me as Betoli.
13
Normally, we would milk the goat into a pail and strain the milk through a flour sack, then boil it to pasteurize it. When out with the herd, we sometimes drank the fresh milk as described here.
14
This happened in 1864. Fort Defiance became a boarding school in Arizona, the one I eventually attended. Fort Sumner is located in the Bosque Redondo area of eastern New Mexico.
15
She was approximately thirteen in white men’s years.
16
Nathan Aaseng, Navajo Code Talkers, p. 7. An estimated two thousand Diné died in captivity from disease and hunger.
17
Ibid., p. 9. Aaseng mentions this feeling of solidarity.
18
Many Navajos took dry sweat baths, utilizing radiant heat from the hot rocks. However, my family poured water over the rocks to create steam. We also employed the medicinal plants mentioned above in the sweat lodge.
19
Survey Graphic: Magazine of Social Interpretation 23:6 (June, 1934), p. 261. The dam is in Arizona.
20
NPS.com.
21
Frank Waters, Masked Gods, pp. 132–133.
22
Waters, p. 142.
23
Arizona and New Mexico sheep and cattle interests opposed the expansion of the reservation, and legislators from New Mexico and Arizona fought successfully for the bill’s defeat.
24
Father Berard Haile, OFM, wrote a Navajo grammar book published in 1926, the first edition of A Manual of Navajo Grammar, but it was known by very few people.
25
Some sources say that the corporal hit the recruits in the face, but I remember the incident as told above. I felt it was all “in good fun,” while other sources label the incident as evidence of prejudice against us Navajo men.
26
Chevron, May 16, 1942.
27
Chevron, July 4, 1942.
28
A couple of missionaries (among them Father Berard Haile) had devised methods of recording Navajo. But in general the language was unwritten.
29
Nathan Aaseng, Navajo Code Talkers, p. 18.
30
Thinkquest.org.
31
Francis must have changed his name after the war, as William Yazzie and Balmer Slowtalker did. He is not listed as Francis Tsinajnnie in any of the books about code talkers. It is also possible that he was one of the code talkers whose documentation was lost.
32
A slang word indicating confusion or mistakes: situation normal, all fucked up.
33
Deanne Durrett, Unsung Heroes of World War II, p. 65.
34
Sally McClain, Navajo Weapon, p. 176.
35
Olive-drab.com. In April 1947, twenty-seven Japanese troops were discovered on Peleliu. They had to be convinced that the war was over.
36
E. B. Sledge, With the Old Breed, p. 157.
37
Later, when the war was over, some bodyguards revealed their assignments to the Navajos they guarded. I never officially met my bodyguard(s), if, indeed, I had them.
38
Sally McClain, Navajo Weapon, pp. 208–209.
39
Ibid., p. 221.
40
McClain, pp. 221–222.
41
The phrases “put on” and “put up” are both used when referring to a ceremony.
42
Traditionally, an older person accompanied the “patient” when he visited the hand-trembler.
43
We Navajos practice Bad Way ceremonies as remedies for evil and Good Way ceremonies to help to keep people on the Good Way road of life.
44
Clyde Kluckhorn and Dorothea Leighton, The Navajo, p. 163. Memorizing a nine-night chant is comparable to memorizing an entire Wagnerian opera, including the orchestral score, all vocal parts, and details of staging and costumes.
45
It is said that a person should attend four sings. Some say it is preferred that the sings all be for the same problem, even if the person attending is not the primary patient in all four.
46
Whether or not this restriction was actually observed is questionable.
47
Some f
amilies putting on a sing build a ceremonial hogan, separate from the hogan in which the hosting family lives. This was not done in my case.
48
Scalp shooters often employed a rifle rather than a sling.
49
In some areas, clan restrictions may be more complex.
50
A dish resembling cream of wheat.
51
Yá’át’ééh can be used to mean “hello” or “good-bye.” It can also mean “good”—or “not good” when used with the negative dooda. Doo shil yá’át’ééh da means “I do not like” someone or something.
52
The songs commemorated fifty ancient Navajo warriors. No one seems to remember whether forty-nine of these warriors were killed in battle, or whether forty-nine survived.
53
I wish that the three additional men who helped develop the code—Felix Yazzie, Ross Haskie, and Wilson Price—had also been awarded gold medals.
