Chester Nez

 "...I am so happy and so proud to have served my country in WWII..." said Chester Nez the last alive original code talker from Second World War. Chester was one of the 29 Navajo men chosen to create a code for the US military. We learned the code is known to be the only code in modern warfare to be unbroken. It took only 13 weeks for the young men to create this code, and it was very efficient. A message that would take others four hours to convert took the Navajo code talkers under three minutes. The code talkers had to remain silent and secretive even after returning from the war. Nez was unable to tell his dying father that he had been a code talker. The young Navajo men were ideal for the job for many reasons. In the reserve everybody worked together so while making the code they listened well and respected each other’s opinion.

In the beginning of the presentation Judith Avila, author of the book Code Talker: The First and only Memoir by One of the Original Code talkers, asked us to leave our identity’s and pretend to be in the mind of Chester Nez as a young man. It was amazing to see through his perspective. One connection I made during the presentation is that similar to Louie Zamperini, Nez was also stationed in the Asian Theater. Seeing the presentation was truly a great historical learning opportunity that I will never forget!