Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay speaks to people before Arizona State’s Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration ceremony Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
PHOENIX – It’s been 80 years since the first Navajo Code Talkers joined the Marines, transmitting messages using a code based on their then unwritten native language to confuse Japanese military cryptologists during WWII – and Thomas H. Begay, one of the last living members of the group, still remembers the struggle.
“It was the hardest thing to learn,” Begay, 98, said Sunday at a ceremony in Phoenix marking the anniversary. “But we were able to develop a code that could not be broken by the enemy of the United States of America.”
Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by US Marines to serve as Code Talkers during the war. Begay is one of the three who is still alive to tell about it.
Code Talkers participated in every Marine-led assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima.
They sent thousands of error-free messages about Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics, and other communications crucial to the ultimate outcome of the war.
President Ronald Reagan established Navajo Code Talkers Day in 1982, and the August 14 holiday honors all tribes associated with the war effort.
It is also an Arizona State holiday and a Navajo Nation holiday on the vast reservation that occupies parts of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern east of Utah.
Begay and his family traveled from Albuquerque to Phoenix for Sunday’s event at Wesley Bolin Plaza where a Navajo Code Talker statue is on display.
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay salutes the Arizona Navajo Code Talkers statue memorial during an Arizona State Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay pauses for a moment during the Arizona State Navajo Code Talkers Day Ceremony Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay, left, waves before Arizona State’s Navajo Code Talkers’ Day celebration Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay salutes the flag during Arizona State’s Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay speaks at Arizona State’s Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay speaks at Arizona State’s Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration Sunday in Phoenix. Begay is one of only three surviving Navajo Code Talkers. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
American Legion Post 84 Honor Guard Ira H. Hayes performs the 21-gun salute during the Arizona State Navajo Code Speakers Day ceremony Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay salutes during the national anthem at Arizona State’s Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay, left, shakes hands with Ron Enderle, right, a Korean War-era U.S. Navy veteran, during the state Navajo Code Talkers Day ceremony from Arizona on Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay, third from left, stands with the Ira H. Hayes American Legion Post 84 Honor Guard prior to Arizona State’s Navajo Code Talkers Day Ceremony Sunday in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
Ross D. Franklin
