Chester Nez

Living in New Mexico Chester Nez had a tough life growing up having to take his family's sheep 20 miles just to get grass. Also having to live in a very tiny house until ten years old. Also getting punished in Kindergarten for speaking his own language Navajo. Chester like Louie Zamperini in the story we just read Unbroken both had a tough childhood. Now Chester Nez at 93 years old he is the only one left of the original 29 code talkers. When Chester was in teens he enlisted as a marine like 30 other Navajo's in New Mexico. World War II was a huge turning point in Chester's life because it made him famous. It made him famous when he was told to make a code that the Japanese wouldn't break from his Navajo language. It took him and the other 28 Navajo people 13 weeks to make this code which was never broken. They used simple objects and translated them into Navajo to create an alphabet. Through the eyes of Chester this was amazing to be one of the 29 code talkers which he said "I am very proud to be one of the code talker men." Chester served 40yrs in the south pacific. Back in 2001 then the code talkers all got congressional gold medals but there was only four of them alive including Chester.