My name is Chester Nez, and I was one of the original 29
Navajo Code Talkers who helped change the course of
World War II.
Today, I’m going to tell you the true story — not just of me,
but of all the brave Navajo men who used our ancient
language to create an unbreakable code that helped the
United States win the war in the Pacific.
Growing Up Navajo
I was born in 1921 in a remote area of the Navajo Nation, in
New Mexico. We lived off the land, herding sheep and goats.
I grew up speaking Diné Bizaad, the Navajo language.
But when I was very young, my mother died. Soon after, I
was taken to a government boarding school, where speaking
Navajo was strictly forbidden. If we were caught, we were
punished. We were forced to take English names, dress like
white children, and speak only English. That’s when I was
given the name “Chester.”
Despite this, I never forgot my language. I kept speaking it
with my grandparents.
The Boarding School Years
When I was just eight years old, I was sent to a government
boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There, I
was forced to take the name Chester, and like other Navajo
children, I was punished for speaking my language.
We were told to stop being Navajo — to cut our hair, wear
uniforms, and speak only English. But even in secret, with
my family or close friends, I kept speaking Diné Bizaad. I
held on to it.
No one back then could’ve imagined that the same language
they tried to erase would one day be used to help win a
world war.
Answering the Call of Duty
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, many
young Navajo men, including me, chose to enlist in the U.S.
Marine Corps.
The military was struggling to find a secure way to send
messages during battle — their codes were being cracked
by the enemy, and it was costing lives.
That’s when Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran who had
grown up on a Navajo reservation, suggested something
bold: Use the Navajo language as a military code.
Creating the Code
The Marine Corps recruited 29 Navajo men, including me, to
join a top secret project. We trained at Camp Elliott in
California, where we worked together to create a military
code based on our language.
We weren’t just speaking Navajo — we were inventing a
two-part code:
First, we developed words for military terms. Since Navajo
had no word for "tank" or "grenade," we used creative
substitutions. For example:
A tank was called “turtle”.
A battleship was a “whale”.
A fighter plane was a “hummingbird.”
Second, we created an alphabet system, where we used
Navajo words to represent English letters. For example, the
letter A might be sent as “ant”, B as “bear”, and so on.
Altogether, we created a code dictionary with over 200 terms
— and memorized every single one of them. We weren’t
allowed to write anything down.
Going to War
Once the code was developed and tested, we were sent into
combat. I was deployed to some of the bloodiest battles in
the Pacific Theater:
Guadalcanal
Bougainville
Saipan
Peleliu
We worked in pairs. One of us operated the radio, the other
translated and spoke the code. Messages had to be sent
fast — in the middle of bombs, gunfire, and chaos.
I remember how our messages were so accurate and quick
that they didn’t need to be repeated — not even once. We
were proud of that.
Iwo Jima – The Test of Everything
During the battle of Iwo Jima, which lasted over a month, six
Navajo Code Talkers worked non-stop, day and night,
sending over 800 messages.
