R.I.P. Chester Nez

Komnena said:

The last Navajo code talker died today.

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Well, crap.

Much respect for him and his brothers.

MacAllister said:

Damn.

We can't afford to lose the people who remember this stuff.

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Time sucks away our choice on that, Mac.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

God bless him. RIP.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

The Codetalkers were amazing. I'm glad their story was able to be told while some of them were still alive and they could get the recognition they deserve. It's sad to think they're all gone now.

Thank you to all veterans, especially WWII vets, on this eve of the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

A friend of a friend just emailed me about Chester; apparently they'd known him back in the eighties.

Pause for reflection, at the end of an era.

Scribhneoir said:

The Codetalkers were amazing. I'm glad their story was able to be told while some of them were still alive and they could get the recognition they deserve. It's sad to think they're all gone now.

Thank you to all veterans, especially WWII vets, on this eve of the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

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Agreed.

Chester was not the last, he was the last of the original group of 29 who developed the code.

We lost Sidney Bedoni on Sunday. There were more than 400 Navajo code talkers. They served until early in Viet Nam.

RIP Chester and Sidney.

MM

Yep, that's right. Chester was among the first group--those who developed the code and were the first to use it. With his passing, all of the original Code Talkers are gone, but those remaining deserve no less honor. All served their country well. For the most part better than their country served them.

How simple. A language beyond their ken. And yet... the ONLY code the Nazis were never able to break.