Overview
- A commemorative gathering in Phoenix drew crowds to honor the Navajo Code Talkers and included Thomas H. Begay, one of the two living Code Talkers.
- During World War II more than 400 Navajo men developed a Navajo-based battlefield code and sent thousands of secret messages that U.S. commanders say Japanese forces never broke.
- The Code Talker program was kept secret after the war, remained classified until 1968, and won formal public recognition with a 1982 proclamation naming Aug. 14 National Navajo Code Talkers Day.
- Tribal leaders criticized the Defense Department after the department removed pages honoring minority veterans under a prior executive order and later said some Navajo material was removed in error and restored it.
- There is still no dedicated museum on the Navajo Nation and organizers have announced plans for a Farmington, New Mexico, museum to preserve the Code Talkers’ legacy as firsthand witnesses rapidly vanish.