The Navajo Code Talkers, a group of 29 men, were recruited to create and utilize a code in their Navajo language. They were used in every major battle in the Pacific theatre. Zonnie Gorman tells the importance of remembering their stories. | HISTORY

The Code Talkers used native languages to send military messages before World War II. Choctaw, for example, was successfully used during World War I. But the Marine Corps needed an “unbreakable” code for its island-hopping campaign in the Pacific. Navajo, which was unwritten and known by few outside the tribe, seemed to fit the Corps’ requirements. Twenty-nine Navajos were recruited to develop the code in 1942. They took their language and developed a “Type One Code” that assigned a Navajo word