Deaths: Last of the 29 Navajo Code Talkers-- Part 1

CHESTER NEZ (1921-2014)

From Reuters.

"Group credited with helping Allies win World War II" by Joseph Kolb.

The last of 29 Navajos who developed an unbreakable code that helped Allied forces win World War II died June 4, 2014, in New Mexico at age 91.

Chester Nez was the last survivor of the original group of Native Americans recruited by the Marine Corps to create a code based on their language that the Japanese could not crack.  Eventually some 400 Code Talkers used their unique battlefield cipher to encrypt messages sent from field telephones and radios throughout the Pacific theater.

Since the language of the Navajos was only spoken in the American southwest and known only to fewer than 30 non-native and had no written form.

More to Come.  --GreGen