In 1942, the first 29 Indian recruits attended boot camp. Then, at the camp in Pendleton, Oceanside, California, the group created the code. Which was basically a dictionary full of basic military terms translated into navajo. All the code words, aswell as the dictionary, had to be memorized during training. “All of the 29 Marines that I went in with, we got together and made a code in our own language. There were over 400 or 500 words that we made up at that time. We memorized them and everything was up here,” (Chester Nez), former Navajo code talker. The Armed Services ran training courses to instruct Indians in communications techniques and to develop standard military phraseology and common military terms. Using the Navajo language seemed to be the perfect option because it wasn't written and not many people of origin could speak
In 1942, the first 29 Indian recruits attended boot camp. Then, at the camp in Pendleton, Oceanside, California, the group created the code. Which was basically a dictionary full of basic military terms translated into navajo. All the code words, aswell as the dictionary, had to be memorized during training. “All of the 29 Marines that I went in with, we got together and made a code in our own language. There were over 400 or 500 words that we made up at that time. We memorized them and everything was up here,” (Chester Nez), former Navajo code talker. The Armed Services ran training courses to instruct Indians in communications techniques and to develop standard military phraseology and common military terms. Using the Navajo language seemed to be the perfect option because it wasn't written and not many people of origin could speak