c. 1943
Navajo code talkers Cpl. Henry Bake, Jr. and PFC George H. Kirk transmit messages during combat on Bougainville.
Image: Fotosearch/Getty Images
Shortly after the entry of the United States into World War II, Philip Johnston approached the Marine Corps with a proposal that could help tip the scales in the Pacific Theater.
Johnston was the child of missionaries, and had grown up on a Navajo reservation. He was one of just a handful of outsiders who could speak the Navajo language fluently.
He proposed developing a code based on this language, one that could be transmitted and decrypted quickly and orally on the battlefield — and that would be virtually impossible for the Japanese to crack. Read more...
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