WEBVTT - How Navajo Code Talkers Work

0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.800
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:13.760
<v Speaker 1>Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.000
<v Speaker 1>I'm editor Kandiskip Sunshine by staff writer Jane Gray. We

0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.400
<v Speaker 1>got an email from one of our favorite listeners named Shiro,

0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.840
<v Speaker 1>and he is just full of so many wonderful ideas

0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.600
<v Speaker 1>for the podcast, and one of the ideas he suggested

0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.160
<v Speaker 1>to us was the Navajo code talkers. And I got

0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.880
<v Speaker 1>really excited about Sharew's idea, and as as did Jane,

0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:36.839
<v Speaker 1>and so we thought, well, that's it, We're going to

0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.479
<v Speaker 1>do it. So you could very well be the next

0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.919
<v Speaker 1>lucky person whose idea gets podcasted about. So email us

0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.720
<v Speaker 1>at podcast at how stuff works dot com and now

0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.960
<v Speaker 1>on with the Navajos. That's right, And to give you

0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.600
<v Speaker 1>the context, we have the idea that codes in war

0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.960
<v Speaker 1>are very important because the Japanese and World War Two

0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.960
<v Speaker 1>were able to um basically tap into communications between the

0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.480
<v Speaker 1>Allied forces and intercept these communications. They are sometimes able

0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.399
<v Speaker 1>to take issue false commands even and like organize ambushes

0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.679
<v Speaker 1>on Allied troops. And so obviously the Allies had to

0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.920
<v Speaker 1>come up with codes that were inevitably broken by the

0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.920
<v Speaker 1>Japanese and Japanese were so good at code breaking, uh

0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.119
<v Speaker 1>that they would break every code that the Allies came

0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:21.920
<v Speaker 1>up with. And this is so frustrating. The Japanese had

0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.959
<v Speaker 1>even sent some of their men to the United States

0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.640
<v Speaker 1>to study the language. Then you English perfectly, they could

0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.600
<v Speaker 1>imitate the accent and the Germans, who the Navajo code

0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.080
<v Speaker 1>talkers didn't really have to interact with, but we're still

0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.319
<v Speaker 1>a major force. In World War Two. They sent some

0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.959
<v Speaker 1>of their men over to Native American reservations and the

0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:43.200
<v Speaker 1>United States to pose as art dealers and other, you know,

0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.800
<v Speaker 1>anthropologists that they could pick up on Native American languages

0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.280
<v Speaker 1>because the United States was known to have used Choctaw

0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.440
<v Speaker 1>and other as many as I think eighteen different tribes

0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.440
<v Speaker 1>influences from their languages and World War One. So and

0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.120
<v Speaker 1>that's one thing I hadn't heard about was the use

0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.200
<v Speaker 1>of the American Indian languages in World War One. And

0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.000
<v Speaker 1>it's interesting that I believe it was Hitler who had

0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.600
<v Speaker 1>had these anthropologists go over that he had the foresight

0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.160
<v Speaker 1>to at least try to understand these languages to break

0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.800
<v Speaker 1>any codes that the Americans would come up with. And

0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.240
<v Speaker 1>so it was a monumental task. And because World War

0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:19.000
<v Speaker 1>two was conducted over a span of islands that were

0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.440
<v Speaker 1>thousands of miles apart, and some instances the United States

0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.840
<v Speaker 1>had to have a way of sending messages that the

0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.000
<v Speaker 1>Japanese would not interpret, and it was really sort of

0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.800
<v Speaker 1>a lost cause until Philip Johnston, who was raised on

0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.360
<v Speaker 1>a Navajo reservation with his missionary parents, went to enable

0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.920
<v Speaker 1>station in Los Angeles and said, I've got this idea. Uh,

0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:43.639
<v Speaker 1>the Navajo language is virtually unknown to any more than

0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.160
<v Speaker 1>like forty non Navajos. It's almost impossible to understand. It's

0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.680
<v Speaker 1>completely oral, it's never been written down. I think that

0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:53.120
<v Speaker 1>this might really work. That's right. And it also was

0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.840
<v Speaker 1>a great advantage because it was so fast to to

0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.840
<v Speaker 1>use as a code. Codes Before that it took hours

0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.800
<v Speaker 1>to send INDEC a message sent through among Allied troops

0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.360
<v Speaker 1>and the machines at the very least would take thirty minutes,

0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.000
<v Speaker 1>and compared this to about twenty seconds that it took

0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:13.560
<v Speaker 1>Navajos to code and decode a message. When Philip Johnston

0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.600
<v Speaker 1>had them demonstrated, it was just whild the celerity with

0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.200
<v Speaker 1>which they worked, and not just the speed, but the

0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:24.240
<v Speaker 1>accuracy too. And Johnston really was advocating for the Navajos

0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.920
<v Speaker 1>language to be used because the Navajos had been educated

0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.919
<v Speaker 1>in American schools. And let me give you guys a

0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:33.280
<v Speaker 1>little bit of background on this. Uh, the Navajos were

0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.920
<v Speaker 1>pretty much isolated in the southwest United States. They they

0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.440
<v Speaker 1>had their home between what they called the Four Sacred Mountains,

0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.440
<v Speaker 1>and so their language is very much consolidated within this area,

0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.520
<v Speaker 1>and language is essential to their culture. They believe that

0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.880
<v Speaker 1>the universe and language were sort of created in tandem,

0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:53.080
<v Speaker 1>the first four words being light, earth, water, and air.

0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.600
<v Speaker 1>And it's a very precise language too, and different inflections

0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:01.040
<v Speaker 1>and different tonalities convey entirely different meanings. So the Navajos

0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.960
<v Speaker 1>were within this this corner of the United States, within

0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.520
<v Speaker 1>the Four Sacred Mountains, and gradually they began to be

0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.560
<v Speaker 1>pushed out, first by Spanish invaders and then by the

0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.680
<v Speaker 1>United States. And General Sherman of Civil War fame is

0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.120
<v Speaker 1>very well known for discussing what he called the Navajo

0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.680
<v Speaker 1>problem and beginning the process of eradication. And he was

0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.400
<v Speaker 1>even quoted as saying that their attempts at civilization are ridiculous.

0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:27.880
<v Speaker 1>And so the Navajos were pushed out of their reservation

0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.200
<v Speaker 1>and they were. They were made to go live in

0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.640
<v Speaker 1>New Mexico until eighteen sixty eight when a leader named

0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.720
<v Speaker 1>Barbon Scudo negotiated for the Navajo to return to their

0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.400
<v Speaker 1>land and in exchange, their children would be raised in

0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.880
<v Speaker 1>US schools and completely give up their culture. And it

0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.160
<v Speaker 1>got to a point where children who even spoke the

0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.320
<v Speaker 1>Navajo language and were overheard were um, we're beaten or

0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.480
<v Speaker 1>punished on their mouths, were washed out. So essentially the

0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:55.000
<v Speaker 1>Navajo culture had been somewhat annihilated and completely brushed aside,

0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.280
<v Speaker 1>and then it rose back up into question again. That's right,

0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.520
<v Speaker 1>and thank goodness that it wasn't I hated completely because

0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.080
<v Speaker 1>it ended up saving battle, saving lives in World War Two.

0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.239
<v Speaker 1>And some Navajos recount that when they heard the music

0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.160
<v Speaker 1>Pearl Harbor, there were as many as a hundred men

0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.920
<v Speaker 1>who went to enable station to report for duty, and

0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.640
<v Speaker 1>they even brought their own weapons in some cases, because

0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.039
<v Speaker 1>Navaja cultures very much rooted and the idea of protecting

0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.520
<v Speaker 1>the homeland, even the homeland that had spurned them for

0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.919
<v Speaker 1>so long. Right and um, not all Navajos were code talkers,

0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.320
<v Speaker 1>but many of them were. It's estimated between three and

0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.440
<v Speaker 1>about four twenty Navajos served as code talkers, and it's

0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.120
<v Speaker 1>interesting to note how the code actually worked because the

0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.400
<v Speaker 1>language itself was very complex. Only about thirty non Navajos

0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.320
<v Speaker 1>actually spoke the language in the world like on the planet.

0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.760
<v Speaker 1>But they added an extra twist to the code that

0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.680
<v Speaker 1>made it even more difficult. And that was even if

0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:56.400
<v Speaker 1>you translated all these Navajos a Navajo words into English correctly,

0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.400
<v Speaker 1>it was still sound like a random chain of words.

0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:00.840
<v Speaker 1>And that was because what you're supposed to do when

0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:02.960
<v Speaker 1>you got the message was only take the first letter

0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.000
<v Speaker 1>of the English translation and put those together to make

0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.120
<v Speaker 1>an understandable message. And what made it so unique was

0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.440
<v Speaker 1>that there were plenty of military terms that the Navajos

0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.800
<v Speaker 1>didn't have words for it all. So something like hummingbird

0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.760
<v Speaker 1>would refer to a fighter plane, and a dive bomber

0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.719
<v Speaker 1>would be a chicken hawk. So there was this added

0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.480
<v Speaker 1>layer of mystery. And even when they thought that the

0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.760
<v Speaker 1>enemy might be getting too close to figuring out what

0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.120
<v Speaker 1>the words stood for, they would take the letter A

0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.120
<v Speaker 1>and come up with three different English words that could

0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.040
<v Speaker 1>be derived from it. That's right, So they mixed it

0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.040
<v Speaker 1>up and like as you say, not all over. Its

0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.360
<v Speaker 1>had to be UM spilled out letter by litter. They

0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.839
<v Speaker 1>had those code words that UM were still shrouded in

0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:44.480
<v Speaker 1>a level of mystery. So the high point of the

0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.800
<v Speaker 1>Navajo code came after the demonstration that Johnston conducted for

0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.719
<v Speaker 1>General Clayton B. Vogel, and that's when Jane mentioned. He

0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:53.960
<v Speaker 1>demonstrated that a message that could take as much as

0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.520
<v Speaker 1>thirty minutes to transmit via a cryptograph or other machine

0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.479
<v Speaker 1>took twenty seconds for the Navajos. And the three hundred

0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.480
<v Speaker 1>eighty second Platoon Coding Unit was formed and recruiters from

0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:08.120
<v Speaker 1>the Marines went to different reservations to get Navajos and UM.

0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.440
<v Speaker 1>They had an outpouring of response, and some of the

0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.880
<v Speaker 1>men lied on their applications because they were too young

0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:15.760
<v Speaker 1>to go, and at least one lied because he was

0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.040
<v Speaker 1>too old to go. And they went to boot camp

0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:20.320
<v Speaker 1>just like any other recruit and then they were taken

0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.440
<v Speaker 1>to Camp Elliott to develop their code and it was

0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.640
<v Speaker 1>never ever ever written down, and it evolved from two

0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.640
<v Speaker 1>hundred eleven to four hundred eleven words, and the Navaja

0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.440
<v Speaker 1>were given a lot of creative freedom and developing the

0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.280
<v Speaker 1>code on their own. That's right, and to go back

0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.200
<v Speaker 1>to how complex the code was, even when Navajo soldier

0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.440
<v Speaker 1>who was actually not trained in the code. This this

0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.480
<v Speaker 1>soldier was not trained, but he understood the Navaho language.

0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.960
<v Speaker 1>When he was captured in Baton by the access troops,

0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.320
<v Speaker 1>they ordered him to try to translate it, and he

0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.080
<v Speaker 1>never understood what the message was. Because of the added

0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.240
<v Speaker 1>complexity of the code. That sort of gave rise to

0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.760
<v Speaker 1>the premise on which the Nicholas Cage maybe wind Talkers

0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.679
<v Speaker 1>is based. And that's the idea that for every Navajo

0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.880
<v Speaker 1>co talker in the field there was a secret bodyguard

0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:06.960
<v Speaker 1>who followed him and was supposed to kill him if

0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.120
<v Speaker 1>he were captured, so that he couldn't show the code.

0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.080
<v Speaker 1>And we don't never for sure if that was actually

0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.680
<v Speaker 1>a component of the Navajo co talker equation. The military

0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:17.960
<v Speaker 1>is not confirming or denying it, but it's, you know,

0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:19.800
<v Speaker 1>it's sort of interesting to think about. It's an interesting

0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.120
<v Speaker 1>twist to the story, that's right. And one of the

0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:25.800
<v Speaker 1>great quotes that I found about their significance to the

0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.280
<v Speaker 1>war in general was from the Battle of the Regima.

0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.440
<v Speaker 1>There was a Major Howard Conner who was an officer

0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.080
<v Speaker 1>there and he had six Navjo code talkers are working

0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.880
<v Speaker 1>around the clock during the battle, and he said later on,

0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:39.760
<v Speaker 1>we're not for the Navajos, and Marines would have never

0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.280
<v Speaker 1>taken you Agima. Yeah, on Agia. It was amazing. We're

0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.600
<v Speaker 1>talking about almost a thirty six day long battle with

0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:51.439
<v Speaker 1>about forty eight straight hours of coding and translating and decoding.

0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.040
<v Speaker 1>About eight hundred messages were sent without a single mistake.

0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.040
<v Speaker 1>It is incredible. And the irony is that when the

0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.840
<v Speaker 1>Navajo co talk walkers, they were the first twenty nine

0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.520
<v Speaker 1>one of the thirty that were originally recruited UM dropped

0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.600
<v Speaker 1>out after after training. The first twenty nine two stayed

0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.560
<v Speaker 1>behind went over to the battlefields. UM. They weren't used

0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.000
<v Speaker 1>at first because people weren't sure that they could really

0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:16.880
<v Speaker 1>trust them in the thick of battle, and they thought

0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.640
<v Speaker 1>that troops might be too caught up in military maneuvers

0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.679
<v Speaker 1>to really need their codes, and so it took a

0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.120
<v Speaker 1>while to build trust for the Navajos to be used

0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.440
<v Speaker 1>for their intended purpose. At first, they were just used

0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.040
<v Speaker 1>for running messages. They were just runners, and others were

0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.320
<v Speaker 1>you know, handed weapons and and told to fight. But

0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.480
<v Speaker 1>little did they know, and the Marine raiders where the

0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:36.880
<v Speaker 1>group that really put them to the test, and they

0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.360
<v Speaker 1>proved themselves especially um it's Sapan. One group of allies

0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.680
<v Speaker 1>was being bombed by their own men and they didn't know,

0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.000
<v Speaker 1>and they kept trying to radio to say stop stop,

0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.080
<v Speaker 1>this is us, you know, And finally they were able

0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.320
<v Speaker 1>to say, have you got a Navaho code talker there?

0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:53.800
<v Speaker 1>And as soon as the Navajo code talker sent the

0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:55.959
<v Speaker 1>message that these were friendly troops that they're firing on,

0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.200
<v Speaker 1>the firing immediately ceased. So the power that they how

0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.000
<v Speaker 1>it was just immeasurable. And what's sad is that after

0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:08.720
<v Speaker 1>Irrigima was taken and after you know, the bombs were

0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.720
<v Speaker 1>dropped on Japan and and the war was in assence over,

0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.880
<v Speaker 1>the Navajo co talkers were discharged and they couldn't really

0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.040
<v Speaker 1>talk about what their contribution to the war how no

0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.880
<v Speaker 1>matter how great it was, um, because it's still the

0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.680
<v Speaker 1>the Marines wanted to keep a hold on it to

0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.080
<v Speaker 1>use in future battles or what have you, and so

0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.760
<v Speaker 1>it actually remained classified until at least nineteen which is

0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.040
<v Speaker 1>just you can think of, like, think of what contribution

0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.320
<v Speaker 1>you made to the country that you know has betrayed

0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.079
<v Speaker 1>your people. In the past and you've done so much

0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.480
<v Speaker 1>great work and you come home and you can't talk

0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.800
<v Speaker 1>about it. It made it difficult for the co talkers

0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.760
<v Speaker 1>who returned to the reservation and those who went out

0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.160
<v Speaker 1>to seek jobs, because they couldn't account for what they've

0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.360
<v Speaker 1>been doing with the past couple of years of their lives,

0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.040
<v Speaker 1>and they couldn't say what they've been doing. They you know,

0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.680
<v Speaker 1>had to either fabricate stories or keep silent. And we

0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:01.920
<v Speaker 1>know today there are plenty of soldiers who are coming

0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.800
<v Speaker 1>home and you know they they have these dreams and

0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:09.560
<v Speaker 1>awful memories and psychological uh reckonings that they're they're dealing

0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:12.160
<v Speaker 1>with after all that they witnessed in war and I

0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.840
<v Speaker 1>Regima especially, we're talking about a volcano where the Japanese

0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.400
<v Speaker 1>were lucky enough to have dug trenches, but the Americans

0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.439
<v Speaker 1>were fighting on top, covered and volcanic dust, being slaughtered

0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.000
<v Speaker 1>all the Japanese had orders to kill at least ten Americans,

0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:26.679
<v Speaker 1>and the Navajo has had to come home and have

0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:28.520
<v Speaker 1>these memories and they couldn't talk about them, and they

0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:30.640
<v Speaker 1>couldn't share them. They had no way to really get

0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.400
<v Speaker 1>help for dealing with the after effects of war and

0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.760
<v Speaker 1>so when the information was declassified and they were finally

0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.240
<v Speaker 1>honored for their service, we we see that, you know,

0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:44.120
<v Speaker 1>these things are still coming up. The Navajo co talkers

0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.000
<v Speaker 1>are still talking about the memories that they have, and

0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.200
<v Speaker 1>it is I mean, it's testament to how well it

0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.440
<v Speaker 1>worked that the Marines still wanted to use it, because

0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.440
<v Speaker 1>it's true the Japanese never broke it, and assessment to

0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.679
<v Speaker 1>how effective they were and how great soldiers they were.

0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.439
<v Speaker 1>And so finally we see that they were paid homage

0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.440
<v Speaker 1>back in two thousand one, uh four of the five

0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.840
<v Speaker 1>living original twenty nine were honored with Congressional Gold medals,

0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:14.000
<v Speaker 1>and others that went in succession after the first twenty

0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:18.760
<v Speaker 1>nine they were given Congressional Silver medals. Built on about time, definitely,

0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.640
<v Speaker 1>So if you want to read more about the Navajos

0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.439
<v Speaker 1>and about how code breakers work, be sure to check

0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:30.080
<v Speaker 1>out our articles on how stuff works dot com for

0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.679
<v Speaker 1>more on this and thousands of other topics. Isn't how

0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:40.240
<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot Com