URL: https://www.indianz.com/News/archives/002601.asp

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Sam Billison, one of the 29 original Navajo Code Talkers, spoke at the Wyoming National Guard headquarters in Cheyenne on Tuesday.

Billison discussed how the U.S. Marines employed Navajo soldiers to create an unbreakable code during World War II. The development was all the more incredible because Navajos were not encouraged to speak their language in school, he said.

"We thought, 'Why don't they make up their minds?'" he said, The Casper Star-Tribune reported.

Billison and the surviving original Code Talkers received Congressional gold medals for helping win the war. The 300 or so who followed them and used the code received silver medals.

Get the Story:
Navajos code an enduring secret (The Casper Star-Tribune 11/19)

Relevant Links:
Sen. Jeff Bingaman's Code Talkers' Site - http://bingaman.senate.gov/code_talkers
Harrison Lapahie Jr's Code Talkers' Site - http://www.lapahie.com/NavajoCodeTalker.html
Windtalkers - http://www.mgm.com/windtalkers
Navajo Code Talkers, Yahoo! - http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Communications/
Cryptology/Codes_and_Ciphers/Code_Talkers/Navajo

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