Navajo Weapon: The Navajo Code Talkers

by Sally McClain and S. McLain

Book Overview

Read the True Story that inspired Windtalkers, a major summer 2002 release that honors the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, directed by John Woo (Mission Impossible II) and starring Nicholas Cage... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1887896325
• ISBN13: 9781887896320
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Rio Nuevo Publishers
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A great read and tribute to these heroes!

My grandfather was one of the original 29 code talkers. This book is filled with little known details about their service to this country. I found the book very easy to read and the author is very good at keeping you interested. By far this book is more informative and knowledgeable then any other that I have read about the navajo code used in WWII. I would recommend this book to any history buff or anyone who is interested in the navajo people and their great contribution to their country.

A Solid History of the Navajo Code Talkers

Sally McClain has put together a well documented, detailed history of the Navajo Code talkers who served during World War II. She also covers a number of the lesser known battles through the Solomons where the code talkers also played a vital role. I used a chapter from this history for my own book, The Greatest U.S. Marine Corps Stories Ever Told: Unforgettable Stories of Courage, Honor, and Sacrifice (Greatest) and I recommend "Navajo Weapon" for anyone interested in a solid general history of these American heroes. Iain C. Martin --Editor, The Greatest U.S. Marine Corps Stories Ever Told

Wider focus than advertised

This book does an excellent job at looking at how and why the Navajo Code Talkers were created, but the greater part of the book was descriptions of the battles in which they took part, rather than how the code talkers experienced the battles. I recognize that some description of the battles was necessary for context, but I felt that it overshadowed her emphasis on the code talkers. Despite this, the author's reliance on interviews with code talkers and others who worked with them and her use of first person memories made the book a glimpse into the code talkers view of the war and their part in it. The epilogue, with its look at what happened for the code talkers on their return home and later recognition by the soldiers they served with, was a wonderful wrap up to an important story.

Solid account

Except among students of history and military buffs, the story of the Navajo code talkers - Marines who were recruited from the Navajo reservations in Arizona and New Mexico - remained relatively unknown until last year's movie, Windtalkers. Unfortunately, the actual history of the code talkers got buried in the shoot-em-up special-effects extravaganza filmed by action director John Woo, who was way out of his league. In that movie, the brave and inventive contributions of the code talkers merely served as a plot device for the white hero's (played by Nicholas Cage) ultimate redemption.However, those interested in the rarely-told real story need only to open the pages of this informative book. Author McClain follows the story of the almost 400 Navajos who volunteered for service during World War II and served in all six Marine divisions. These enlistees adapted their native tongue, Dineh, into an unbreakable code that would keep Japanese radio operators and cryptologists entirely baffled during the length of the war.The obscure origins of the Navajo code talker program date back to World War I. After American entry in that war, the signal corps learned that Central powers were listening in on orders relayed on that new communication tool, the radio. They then engaged Choctaw Indians as radio operators in order to safely transmit information. It worked like a charm.However, after war's end, the German government sent numerous "scholars" to the United States in order to "study" the lives and societies on many American Indian nation reservations. Actually, the so-called students were intelligence agents there to learn native languages.After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the need for a absolutely secret code was vital. Marine Maj. Gen. Clayton B. Vogel and civilian Philip Johnston, a white man who grew up on the Navajo reservation at Leuppe, Ariz., concluded that Navajo would be an ideal code language because many Navajo were educated in English at Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools, and especially since no German scholars had been sent to Navajo reservations. This secret code would be instrumental in keeping Corps operations secure and, most importantly, its men alive.On May 4, 1942, the Marines had recruited 29 Navajos, which formed the 382nd Platoon, a trial unit that would go through the rigors of boot camp at the Marine Depot at San Diego. Although attrition levels for this period were between five to ten per cent, not one Navajo dropped out of the training.Up until graduation from boot camp, the "first 29" (as they would later be known as) had no idea for what special duty they had been recruited. Upon arrival at Camp Elliott, outside of San Diego, they were informed that their mission was to devise a code for secret and rapid radio transmission based on their native tongue. Code talker Eugene Crawford recalled the irony of the situation: Having been forced to speak only English in the BIA schools he attended, "he could almost taste

Good overview of the heroic Navajo Marines in WWII

This is the second code talker book I've read and by far the better of the two. It gives good detail of the origins of the war in the Pacific and an interesting and terrifying account of the progress through the Pacific islands with the code talkers pivotal role displayed very well. This book gave me exactly what I wanted. I didn't want to get to bogged down in minute details but wanted a good overview of the Navajo contribution. This book delivers and is very easy and pleasant to read.