Chester Nez

  "I am so proud to have been able to serve my country" Chester Nez said on November 11, 2013 at Wausau East High School. Chester Nez is from New Mexico and is a Navajo Native American. When he was in high school army recruiters came and were trying to find perfect English spoken people to become code talkers in the Japanese Theater during World War 2. In the book Unbroken Louie also served in the Japanese Theater, although he was not a code talker he did take part in the successful World War 2. They were very surprised to find out that they were chosen to become code talkers because in the boarding school that these young men attended were often kicked and hit if they spoke their native language and that's what they were told they would being doing. 29 men had to come up with a code that was Navajo and so the Japanese couldn't figure it out. They first made an alphabet to try and understand the words better and they also made words that they would commonly use in the army. These code talkers served four years in the Pacific talking to each other in this very secret code. Chester fought on Guadalcanal, Bougainvillea, Guam, Peleliu, and Angaur. Today Chester is the only living original code talk, he is 92 years old and as he always said, "He will never forget the experience he had in the war." Chester being this patriotic really goes to show how much people care for our country.