Blackbear

************************************************** ************
This Message Is Reprinted Under The Fair Use
Doctrine Of International Copyright Law:
_http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html_
(http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html)
************************************************** ************

FROM: THE ONEIDA DAILY DISPATCH NEWSPAPER

_http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15531019&BRD=1709&PAG=461&dept_id=6
8844&rfi=6_
(http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...id=68844&rfi=6)

Code Talkers helped win Pacific victory


By ANDREW BROWN, Dispatch Staff Writer
11/07/2005





ONEIDA - It's a good thing Merril Sandoval did not forget how to speak his
native language, Navajo, when he was forced to learn English in school.


That's because the language he grew up speaking on the eastern Navajo
reservation in New Mexico came in handy later on.
Sandoval was a "code talker" for the United States Marine Corps during World
War II. He and other Navajo Indians used a form of coded speech that relied
heavily on the Navajo language to relay messages from military superiors to
units on the battlefield during the war.
On Saturday morning Sandoval gave a speech at the Oneida Indian Nation's Ray
Elm Children and Elders Center in Oneida. He spoke to around 200 people, many
of them U.S. veterans, about his experiences in World War II and the coded
idiom he was trained to use.
Born in New Mexico in 1925, Sandoval attended the Farmington Mission School
in the 1930s, where he was forced to learn English.
"Any time we talked Navajo to each other, if we got caught, we were
punished," he said of his teacher's attempts to rid him and his classmates of their
native tongue. "But we still had our language, as much as they tried to take
our language away."
When World War II broke out his older brother, Samuel Sandoval, joined the
Marines. Although Merril Sandoval wanted to follow his brother into military
service immediately, he was told he would have to wait a year because he was
only 16 years old.
In 1943, he finally enlisted at the age of 17, and after boot camp in San
Diego, Calif., he was sent to radio communication school, where he trained to be
a code talker. Portrayed in the 2002 movie "Windtalkers," Navajo code
talkers used their native language to relay messages in a code that the Japanese
military never figured out.
"They tried every way to decode our language, to decipher it," Sandoval said
of the Japanese intelligence officers attempting to crack the idiom. "It was
real fast and it was real secret."
Relaying the messages in code, Sandoval explained, was more complex than
simply saying the message in the Navajo language. To spell out the names of pla
ces they used words for animals. The letter "A" became "wol-la-chee," the name
for an ant in Navajo, while "B" was "shush," the Navajo word for bear. They
would mix it up though too. When spelling out a long name like Guadalcanal,
they would occasionally substitute the Navajo words for ax or apple when they
wanted to say "A," instead of simply using ant all the time.
The words for different types of boats and planes all got Navajo names as
well. Since they referred to different types of planes by calling them different
kinds of birds, the name for an aircraft carrier became the Navajo way to
say "bird carrier."
To make it even more complex, Sandoval explained to the audience, they often
used different combinations of Navajo words to denote single English words.
For example, the English word "secured" was said by using a combination of the
Navajo words for "illness" and "cured," because "secured" sounds like "sick
cured."
Using this complex code, Sandoval relayed messages from his Marine division
to Navajo Marines stationed with military officials in other parts of the
world. The message would be given to him in English on a piece of paper, relayed
and received on the other end in Navajo, and then translated and delivered to
military officials in the other location.
The Japanese, he said, were always trying to disrupt the messages though.
They would say things in English to try to confuse the Navajos.
"If I'm sending a message I knew they were listening," he said, but added
that the Japanese tactics rarely worked. "We knew each other so well, we knew
each other's voices."
At various times Sandoval was stationed in Hawaii, Saipan and Okinawa. He was
also involved in the battle for Iwo Jima, which he recalled on Saturday with
sadness.
Everyday he had to relay messages about the number of Marines killed or
wounded, and he said they lost 6,000 soldiers in the three weeks it took to
conquer the small island. When the job was done though, he spoke of his fellow
troops excitement when a small group of soldiers raised the American flag on the
island, a moment immortalized in photography and statue.
"They were glad to see that flag up there," he said. "It meant a lot to us
even though we knew it was no victory."
Sandoval also expressed his views on the movie about his fellow Navajo
Marines, which he says is not completely accurate. The studio that made the movie,
MGM, asked permission to make the film from the Navajo Code Talkers'
Association, of which Sandoval is a member. The Association suggested changes to the
movie, but the studio ignored their suggestions.
"It's a good Marine Corps movie, but not about the code talkers," Sandoval
said, of the movie which is about two white Marines that are assigned to
protect the code talkers.
As for the idea in the movie that each code talker had a white Marine escort,
he said that was not his experience. One time during a lull in the fighting
on Iwo Jima, he and another Navajo took a walk away from their military
encampment. While walking along they encountered two U.S. Marines, who thought
Sandoval and the other man were Japanese soldiers, and threatened to kill them.
The two Navajos convinced the other Marines to take them to their superior,
and the Marines agreed to, walking them to their headquarters at gunpoint.
Once they got there the two Navajo were identified by officers as being U.S.
Marines and were freed.
"That's how I know," he said of the idea that he never had a white Marine
with him at all times. He then added, joking: "I don't think we had one. Maybe
we did. Maybe he was asleep."
While there were over 400 code talkers during World War II, Sandoval said
there are now fewer than 100 left. Often during the speech, which was
accompanied by a slide show of photos taken during the war, he would point out fellow
code talkers who have since passed away. The youngest of the remaining code
talkers is 79, just one year younger than Sandoval at 80.
At the end of his speech, Sandoval commended the other veterans in the room f
or their work in protecting the country as well.
"We include you in taking care of fighting for our country," he told them.
"You did a good job also."
Many of the veterans that attended the event, which included a breakfast and
a performance by the Oneida Indian Nation Dance Troupe, were impressed by
Sandoval's speech.
"It was so interesting," said M. David Hartwell, a veteran from Oneida. "I've
heard about the code talkers before, but this man is 80 years old and he
never missed a beat."
Hartwell said it was refreshing to hear how Native Americans helped the U.S.
cause during World War II.
Another veteran, Bill Yorton, of Canastota, thought the speech was
"excellent," and particularly enjoyed a story Sandoval told about fellow Navajos not
being able to understand the coded language used by the Marines.
"Codes were a big thing in the military," Yorton said.
Sandoval said after the speech that he is glad people recognize the
contributions of the code talkers, but does not believe their accomplishments were
more important than what other soldiers did during the war.
"We don't want to be called heroes, but the job we did for the country we
were glad to do it," he said.
Although he has spoken at Hamilton College in Clinton and also in
Schenectady, this was the first time he had been to the Oneida Indian Nation Territory,
and he praised the tribe for its accomplishments.
"I think it is a tribe that is really progressing with their initiatives," he
said. "They are doing a good job of keeping their culture alive."
He mentioned during the speech his belief that the Navajo people must keep
their language alive, and pass it onto their children and grandchildren. After
the speech he explained that this idea is important to him because you never
know when the idiom will become helpful again.
"At one time they tried to take our language away, and then we turned around
and used it for a good cause," he said. "If they did succeed and take our
language away, the war might have been a little different."


©The Oneida Daily Dispatch 2005

__________________
Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear... just sing, sing a song.