Navajo Code Talker Thomas H. Begay sits at a war memorial in Albuquerque, New Mexico, June 9, 2025. (Credit: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
PHOENIX - More than 400 Navajo men were recruited by the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II to use their native language to create a military code that Japanese forces were unable to decipher.
Their work played an important role in U.S. military operations across the Pacific and helped save countless lives.
Two Navajo Code Talkers remain
Big picture view:
A gathering in Phoenix is expected Friday to commemorate the occasion, with 101-year-old Thomas H. Begay among those attending. Begay is one of only two surviving Navajo Code Talkers.
Begay grew up speaking Navajo with his parents and did not learn English until he was sent to boarding school at age 13.
He left the Marine Corps in 1946 but returned to military service the following year, joining the U.S. Army. He worked as a communications specialist and served as a paratrooper during the Korean War before leaving the military in 1953.
The only other surviving Navajo Code Talker is Peter MacDonald. He joined the Marine Corps when he was 15, despite being two years below the required age, by lying about his age.
After World War II, MacDonald worked as an engineer for a defense contractor and later became a prominent, and at times controversial, political figure on the Navajo Nation.
For Begay, MacDonald and the generations that followed them, the story of the Code Talkers showcased how language could become an essential tool in defending the United States during one of its most difficult wars.
"The U.S. was being defeated. Without that code, that war could have been different," Dawn Manuelito, a granddaughter of one of the first 29 Navajo Code Talkers, told The Associated Press. "Our language saved this country."
History of Navajo Code Talkers
The backstory:
Between 1942 and 1945, Navajo Marines transmitted thousands of confidential messages about battle plans, troop movements and other military operations. The Navajo language was largely unwritten and little understood outside the Navajo Nation, and the Marines developed a specialized code within the language that Japanese forces were never able to break.
After the war, Navajo Code Talkers were ordered to keep their work confidential. Many could not even tell their families what they had done. The program remained classified until 1968, when efforts to publicly recognize the veterans began.
President Richard Nixon sent a letter of appreciation to the Navajo Tribal Council in 1971. Five years later, Code Talker veterans took part in the nation's bicentennial parade in Washington.
Begay and other veterans later petitioned Congress for formal recognition.
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In 1982, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed Aug. 14 National Navajo Code Talkers Day, honoring the Navajo Code Talkers and recognizing the military contributions of other Native Americans.
The proclamation also recognized Native American soldiers from tribes including the Choctaw, Chippewa, Creek and Sioux, who used their languages for military communications during the two world wars.
According to the National Museum of the American Indian, members of at least 20 tribes served as Code Talkers. More than 40,000 Native American men and women served in the U.S. military during World War II. Comanche Code Talkers, for example, participated in European operations, including the D-Day invasion.
The Code Talkers' legacy faced renewed attention after the Defense Department removed thousands of webpages honoring women and minority groups following an executive order from President Donald Trump ending federal diversity and equity programs. Materials about the Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans were among those removed.
Tribal leaders criticized the decision. The Pentagon later restored some of the pages, saying the Navajo Code Talker material had been removed by mistake.
What's next:
The Code Talkers also still lack a dedicated museum. Efforts to establish one on the Navajo Nation have stalled, although plans were announced recently for a museum in Farmington, New Mexico.
The Source: This story was reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press contributed.