Chester Nez, a Navajo Indian, a Marine, and a true American hero, the last of the original 29 code talkers, has died.  One of the first 29 that developed the code and then taught it to the 400 or so code talkers to follow. The Japanese never could break the code, enabling the marine in the Pacific to communicate  with each other without fear of the Japs knowing what they were doing.  Mr. Nez was born at Chi’Chil’Tah, NM and help tend the family’s sheep farm until leaving for boarding school at Tohatchi. He was attending Tuba City Boarding School when recruiters came to his school looking for recruits. The students did not know they were looking for code talkers. Phillip Johnston, a veteran and non-Native American grew up on the Navajo Reservation and spoke fluent Navajo, proposed to the military to develop a code based on the complex Navajo language.  These 29 recurits worked for a long time to develop the code and commit it to memory. It was not written down. The code talkers  developed an alphabet using common Navajo words. For example, A became the Navajo word for “ant” or wolla-chee.” A”  could also be bella-sana, the Navajo work for apple or tse-nill for “ax” The use of multiple words for a single letter helped make the code undecipherable. Military termin0l0gy was also developed. The submarine became iron fish and the tank became a tortoise and a hand grenade was a potato. The code talker worked day and night, during meals, traveling overseas, committing the codes to memory. They worked in two’s, one talking on the radio while the other cranked the radio, then they would switch……The Japanese were baffled as to what the heck these boys were saying……What a debt of honor we owe to these American hero’s. To the Nez family, to the other descendants of the other code talkers and to the entire Navajo Nation, we say thank you and we are deeply appreciative of the contribution to the war efforts in World War Two by these men. Truly they are American heros……Thanks to the Albuquerque Journal, Thursday June 5, 2014 who has provided most of the information used in this report…..E. V. Pete Hester