Interesting Snippets

In the Pacific campaign, the Navajo provided US Marines with an unbreakable code, a combination of their own language and special code words, the latter being used for military terms that had no obvious translation within the Navajo lexicon. The Navajo language has no link with any European or Asian language, and consequently the Japanese had no hope of deciphering it. According to Major General Howard Conner: “Without the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.” Their contribution was not acknowledged until 1968