Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

by Chester Nez, Judith Schiess Avila

Overview

The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII-includes the actual Navajo Code and rare photos.

Although more than 400 Navajos served in the military during World War II as top-secret code talkers, even those fighting shoulder to shoulder with them were not told of their covert function. And, after the war, the Navajos were forbidden to speak of their service until 1968, when the code was finally declassified. Of the original twenty- nine Navajo code talkers, only two are still alive. Chester Nez is one of them.

In this memoir, the eighty-nine-year-old Nez chronicles both his war years and his life growing up on the Checkerboard Area of the Navajo Reservation-the hard life that gave him the strength, both physical and mental, to become a Marine. His story puts a living face on the legendary men who developed what is still the only unbroken code in modern warfare.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425244234
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/06/2011
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Chester Nev is a World War II veteran who indispensably served his country as a Navajo code talker. He lives in New Mexico.
Judith Schiess Avila has conducted eighty hours of interviews with Chester Nez and his son. She lives in New Mexico.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A unique, inspiring story by a member of the Greatest Generation." —-Kirkus

Editorial Reviews

Written with code talker scholar Schiess Avila, Nez's fascinating memoir details his experience as one of the original 29 "code talkers"-a group of Native American soldiers who kept U.S. transmissions safe from the Japanese during WWII. The code they used was developed using Navajo, an entirely spoken language. Most Marines had no idea that Nez or his fellow Navajos were involved with the highly classified code talker mission, and trusted the team despite the era's prevalent racial segregation. Though Nez grew up speaking Navajo, he was sent to government-run boarding schools, and forced to learn English. His facility with both languages allowed him to advance during his career with the Marines, and he counts the day of his enlistment (while still in high school) as the luckiest day of his life. Still, when Nez returned home to New Mexico in 1945, it would be another three years before Native Americans were allowed to vote. Though the last section of the book drifts, readers will be captivated by stories of Nez's childhood and his days as a Marine.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

While the Japanese could figure out many World War II American codes and transmissions, they could not crack the Navajo Code Talkers. Nez was one of the original Code Talkers serving with the Marines. Here, with Avila (New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities Chautauqua Program), a Code Talker scholar, he tells of a hard New Mexico childhood in the Great Depression; the discrimination against Native Americans; how the code was developed from a language with no written background; his dangerous wartime experiences on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, and Peleliu; and his postwar life. The big picture of the Pacific Campaign is only selectively mentioned; instead there's lots of detail of personal effort, suffering, and boredom, summoning the true flavor of the war and a portrait of those who made a valuable contribution to the war effort. The appendix is a 1945 "Navajo Code Talkers Dictionary" from the U.S. Navy, also available online. VERDICT Accessible and compelling, this is recommended for general readers as well as World War II history buffs.

Library Journal

Gripping in its narrative, Code Talker is history at its best.”—Colonel Cole C. Kingseed, U.S. Army (Ret.), co-author of Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters

“A fascinating inside look at one of WWII’s most closely guarded secrets…This is an important book, a previously untold piece of our history.”—Marcus Brotherton, author of Shifty’s War
 
“You don’t need to be a fan of World War II literature to appreciate this memoir…a fascinating melange of combat in the Pacific theater, the history of the Navajo people and the development of a uniquely American code.”—The Associated Press
 
“A unique, inspiring story by a member of the Greatest Generation.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A remarkably affecting first-person account of the Navajo Marines who served their country with distinction through some of the worst battles of the Pacific theater.”—The Washington Times

From the Publisher