These men, along with the Tuskegee airmen, have held my greatest admiration. I’m pretty well obsessed with the era to begin with, but I also adore men and women of valor who face great odds on all sides. No one knows this struggle better than Native Americans. These are true American heroes, in every sense of the word. Without them, we very well may have lost the war to the Axis Powers. Imagine what that would mean for people of color, for Jewish peoples…women.
Read more about the Navajo Code Talkers…
Telling the Story: Code Talkers: The Subset of American Indians Soldiers Who Played a Key Intelligence Role in WWII – National Museum of American Indian.
More on the Code Talkers from the Marines website.

Navajo Code Talkers Cpl. Oscar B. Gallup, Pfc. Jack Nez and Pfc. Carl Gorman were among the Marines on Saipan who landed with the first assault waves to hit the beach. The Code Talkers’ primary mission was to send and receive encrypted messages, but as a result saw their fair share of combat in the Pacific.(Photo courtesy of U.S. Marine Corps Historical Division)