Navajo Code Talkers: An American Treasure

According to the Navajo Code Talkers official website, “the Navajo are a Native American tribe, the second largest of its kind as federally recognized … The Navajo people are mostly concentrated in the southwestern United States. Around 300,460 people are enrolled as tribal members according to data available till 2015. There is what we call the Navajo Nation which is an independent governmental body responsible for managing the Navajo reservation. The area under its governance is primarily in the Four Corners area covering 27,000 square miles of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Arizona is home to around a hundred and forty thousand Navajo people. New Mexico is home to over a hundred thousand. While the primary language spoken by the people is Navajo, they do speak English.”

Navajo Code Talkers: Defending America

The website further cites that the beginning of the Navajo Code Talkers took place on May 4, 1942 when 29 Navajo Indians were sent to San Diego, California. These men would be recruits for a unique U.S. Marine Corps program.

Their mission, critical to America’s armed forces during World War II, involved creating an undecipherable code without a written alphabet. This code would be further complicated with common Navajo words having substitutions confined only to memory.

This communication code was critical for confounding enemy forces so that American troop plans, movements, and communications remained secure.

The Navajo Code talkers program involved American Indians leaving their sacred home land for the first time to travel overseas. Their efforts on the front line of battle contributed to the saving of countless American lives.

During World War II about 400 Navajos participated in the code program. These code talkers were critical to America's victory and vital to every U.S. Marine assault in the Pacific from 1942-1945.

Peter MacDonald: Code Talker Legend

On November 27, Peter MacDonald, president of the 13 surviving Navajo Code Talkers, was honored with two of his Code Talker colleagues at the White House.

After watching his inspiring remarks expressive of his American patriotism, I took time to do some research on this great man. I came across an inspirational documentary film titled “A Journey of Perseverance” about MacDonald and the Navajo Code Talkers.

The film is archived at multiple sites including the Navajo Nation Museum and the Smithsonian Institute of the American Indian. Hopefully, it will someday also be archived at a new museum in Washington, D.C. that honors the legacy of the Navajo Code Talkers.

In the film, MacDonald speaks about the Navajo language as non-written form of communication. He stated that this is what made it so successful since it could only be understood by the 400 Navajo Code Talkers in the U.S. Marine Corps.

MacDonald also stated that all 600 code words were top secret to Code Talkers only. He illustrated how the code saved a company of Marines pinned down by the enemy on Iwo Jima.

During this incident, a Navajo Code Talker from the front line communicated in code a distress call pinpointing their location and called for immediate demolition team intervention.

A team of Marines was immediately dispatched, unbeknownst to the enemy due to the code, and the Marines in harm’s way were saved.

MacDonald also shared these inspirational words in the film which captures the resolve of the Navajo Code Talkers:

“Be strong, have a strong mind. Have a strong heart. Have a strong body. Run and make yourself physically strong, mentally strong, and spiritually strong. You can do anything, no matter what it is.”

Final Reflections

Peter MacDonald’s courageous service was eloquently expressed during the Nov. 27 White House ceremony with these words to all of America:

“So thank you very much. The 13 of us, we still have one mission-that mission is to build national Navajo Code Talker Museum. We want to preserve this unique World War II history for our children, grandchildren, your children, your grandchildren to go through that museum.

“Why? Because what we did truly represents who we are as Americans. America, we know, is composed of diverse community. We have different languages, different skills, different talents, and different religion. But when our way of life is threatened, like the freedom and liberty that we all cherish, we come together as one. And when we come together as one, we are invincible. We cannot be defeated. That's why we need this national Navajo Code Talker Museum so that our children, the future generation, can go through that museum and learn why America is so strong.”

America is deservingly proclaimed as “the land of the free and home of the brave.” This proclamation is possible only because of patriots such as the Navajo Code Talkers who honorably served in the U.S. Marine Corps and all our armed forces.

Our nation must eternally honor their sacrifices, patriotism, and valor.

These patriots served as ethical protectors of America’s freedom, and their museum deserves to be built.

May America be eternally grateful for Navajo Code Talkers. The Navajo Code Talkers rose to the occasion to exercise America’s sacrosanct right to protect ourselves and all people of moral decency. They deserve our admiration, respect, and a Navajo Code Talkers Museum to forever remember their sacrifices.

Related Coverage:

With Honor and Leadership the US Marine Corps Protects America

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Vincent is author of 250 articles, including his weekly column titled “Reawakening the Nation” for the Epoch Times; 35 countries, 21 languages, and growing. As a national speaker, he has addressed audiences nationwide on issues critical to America including ethical leadership, violence prevention, and crisis planning.

Photo: Bill Toledo and Albert Smith, Navajo Code Talkers, pose for a photo while visiting Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., Jan. 30 - Feb. 1, 2013. These New Mexico natives visited the base to speak to Airmen and raise funds to enable their mission to preserve the code talker history, legacy, and language. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Alexxis Pons Abascal)

Sexual Harassment Dishonors Human Dignity

The dignity of each human person demands integrity, character, and moral decency. Society demands that these qualities are critical for one’s own personal dignity and must be applied by word, example, and action to all.

Human dignity demands ethical behavior and is diametrically opposed to behavior that dishonors personal reputation, or reflects disrespect toward others.

An individual who truly stands on a foundation of respect for self and others, is authentically ethical by word, example, and action. Disrespect, which dishonors the respect due to self and others, is never to be tolerated.

Every person, is called to exemplify lives of character, and to honor the dignity of human freedom through self-mastery, discipline, and respect. These are the virtues we are called to live by, and they always contradict the defects of duplicity, living a double-life, and vulgarity.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) cites that sexual harassment is a “form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

The EEOC defines sexual harassment as:

“Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”

The commission also states that sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

• The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.
• The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.
• The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
• Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.
• The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

Sexual Harassment: Scandals Demand Actions

A storm of sexual harassment stories throughout America is our wake-up call and a time of reckoning.

The crisis reminds us of our social order and that actions of individuals can adversely or favorably impact the common good.

By the common good it is understood that social behaviors and conditions must always respect rights due to individuals and society.

These rights demand respect for all members of society which are now being contradicted by headlines nationwide which include the following:

• Sexual harassment tipping point: Why now?
• Political media engulfed by sexual harassment crisis
• Sexual Harassment troubles mount in statehouses around the country
• Special Report: A Cultural Turning Point on Sexual Harassment
• Sexual Harassment Scandals are blowing up the media
• Former USA Gymnastics doctor pleads guilty to criminal sexual conduct
• Hollywood Has Shined a Spotlight on Sexual Harassment: Now What?

As members of American society, each of us has a responsibility to contribute to the common good, and to play an active part to remedy deficiencies.

Each person has an ethical responsibility according to one’s talents, capabilities, and position. When sexual harassment issues violate human dignity and adversely impacts society, we have the duty to respond with full force determination.

Final Reflections

During my character presentations and published works over the past twenty years, I have been privileged to address law enforcement, government leaders, corporate representatives, educators, and students.

The issues of sexual harassment as a violation of human dignity have been an essential element of my response to a crisis of character. These initiatives have demanded that we have the moral decency to stand against insensitivity, victim blaming, dishonesty, evasiveness, enabling, inaction, cover-ups, superficiality, and hypocrisy.

America must have the moral courage to remedy the sexual harassment crisis. We have a problem that must honestly be addressed with ethical leadership that expresses itself not only through words, but by example and actions.

We must take the moral high ground in our families, schools, communities, houses of worship, and workplaces to ignite an ethical renaissance throughout American society. The foundation of this renaissance must be built on the pillars of character, which respects human dignity.

When America honors the dignity of sexuality as essential to the character of the nation, we will be on the path of our true destiny.

Related Coverage / Vincent J. Bove Published Works:

American Government Requires Ethical Leadership

Campus Sexual Predators: Issues and Response

College Rapes, Sexual Assaults: America’s Nightmare

Rape and Sexual Assault Highlighted in Presidential Campaigns

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Linkedin: Vincent J. Bove Consulting, Speaker Services, Publishing

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Vincent is author of 250 articles, including his weekly column titled “Reawakening the Nation” for the Epoch Times; 35 countries, 21 languages, and growing. As a national speaker, he has addressed audiences nationwide on issues critical to America including ethical leadership, violence prevention, and crisis planning.

Photo: Demonstrators participate in the #MeToo Survivors' March in response to several high-profile sexual harassment scandals, in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 12, 2017. The protest was organized by Tarana Burke, who created the viral hashtag #MeToo after reports of alleged sexual abuse and sexual harassment by the now disgraced former movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein. (David McNew/Getty Images)

With Honor and Leadership the US Coast Guard Protects America

As detailed on the official U.S. Coast Guard website, “The mission of the United States Coast Guard is to ensure our Nation’s maritime safety, security, and stewardship.”

The vision of this branch of our armed forces is “We will serve our Nation through the selfless performance of our missions. We will honor our duty to protect those we serve and those who serve with us. We will commit ourselves to excellence by supporting and executing our operations in a proficient and professional manner."

Coast Guard Missions

Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Coast Guard, the only military branch within the Department of Homeland Security, oversees missions as “homeland security” or “non-homeland security” missions.

The “homeland security” missions are safeguarding ports and waterways, coastal security, drug interdiction, migrant interdiction, defense readiness, and other law-enforcement initiatives.

The “non-homeland” missions are marine safety, search and rescue, aids to navigation, living marine resources, marine environmental protection, and ice operations.

The Coast Guard defends more than 100,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways.

Aside from its role as one of the five Armed Services of the United States, the Coast Guard is a critical first responder and humanitarian service. In this capacity, aid is provided to people in distress or impacted by natural or man-made disasters either at sea or ashore. The valiant rescue operations have been witnessed due to the hurricanes that have recently hit America.

An Average Coast Guard Day

Currently, there are over 56,000 members of the Coast Guard serving America. This service involves a fleet of 243 Cutters, 201 fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, and over 1,600 boats.

The Coast Guard website cites that on an average day, their service includes the following:

• Conducts 45 search and rescue cases.
• Saves 10 lives.
• Saves over $1.2M in property.
• Seizes 874 pounds of cocaine and 214 pounds of marijuana.
• Conducts 57 waterborne patrols of critical maritime infrastructure.
• Interdicts 17 illegal migrants.
• Escorts 5 high-capacity passenger vessels.
• Conducts 24 security boardings in and around U.S. ports.
• Screens 360 merchant vessels for potential security threats prior to arrival in U.S. ports.
• Conducts 14 fisheries conservation boardings.
• Services 82 buoys and fixed aids to navigation.
• Investigates 35 pollution incidents.
• Completes 26 safety examinations on foreign vessels
• Conducts 105 marine inspections.
• Investigates 14 marine casualties involving commercial vessels.
• Facilitates movement of $8.7B worth of goods and commodities through the Nation’s Maritime Transportation System.

Medal of Honor Recipient

Although there are countless stories of heroism by members of the Coast Guard, a spotlight on a Medal of Honor recipient is worthy of reflection.

First Class Signalman Douglas Albert Munro is the first and only member of the Coast Guard to receive the Medal of Honor.

This medal is the highest and most distinguished U.S. military decoration that can be awarded to a service member for an act of valor.

On Sept. 27, 1942, Signalman Munro was assigned to the seaplane tender Ballard, anchored just off Guadacanal.

Munro’s ship received word that 500 U.S. Marines were pinned down nearby by a fierce Japanese resistance at a beachhead known as Point Cruz.

Munro volunteered to lead a group of twenty-four Higgins boats to evacuate the Marines from slaughter.

Although under heavy machine-gun fire during the response, Munro’s leadership enabled the saving of hundreds of Marines faced with certain death.

Munro, hit with enemy fire, lost his life while saving the detachment of Marines. His last words, referring to the remaining Marines who were being evacuated were, “Did they get off?”

For his heroic leadership, Munro epitomized the motto of the Coast Guard, Semper Paratus (Always Ready). He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor as well as the Purple Heart, and numerous other decorations. Engraved on his Medal of Honor is the testimony to his greatness:

“For his extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty … he gallantly gave his life in defense of his country.”


Final Reflections

As this article is completed in the shadows of our recent Veterans Day, America is reminded to eternally honor all who serve in our Coast Guard. We must also perpetually honor all who serve, and who have served in all of our Armed Forces.

America is only the “land of the free and home of the brave,” because of all who selflessly protect our freedom, liberty, and cherished way of life.

To all members of the Coast Guard who protect us - praise to you, good, faithful, and always prepared servants of America.

Related Coverage:

Armed Forces: Honor, Leadership, Protecting America

Life Lessons From the United States Military

America’s Veterans Deserve Honor, Homes, Health Care

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Linkedin: Vincent J. Bove Consulting, Speaker Services, Publishing

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Photos

1. U.S. Coast Guard honor guard at Times Square on Memorial Day 2011. (Vincent J. Bove)

2. Crew members from Coast Guard Station New York, Coast Guard Cutter Ridley and New York Police Department marine units enforce multiple security zones on the East River during the departure of Pope Francis during his historical visit to New York, Sept. 26, 2015. (Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard)

3. Crew members aboard a 25-foot Response Boat-Small from Maritime Safety and Security Team 91107 escort the cruise ship Pride of America out of Honolulu Harbor. The Coast Guard conducts escorts of high-capacity passenger vessels to ensure security of the passengers, the vessel and the port. (Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard)

4. U.S. Coast Guard Signalman First Class Douglas Munro. (Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard)

Carnage of Innocents in America Demands Moral Courage

Shortly after the Apr. 20, 1999 Columbine High School massacre, I was privileged to address audiences throughout America on leadership, violence prevention, and crisis planning.

During these presentations, I shared reflections with law enforcement, educators, mental health professionals, private security, students, government officials, and community leaders. These reflections crystalized concerns that violence in America would intensify not only in schools, but in workplaces, communities, against police, in houses of worship, and by acts of terrorism.

America’s Head-On Collision

In my graphic slide presentations, I used a metaphor of a head-on catastrophic train-wreck in America. The head-on collision emphasized the effects of our simultaneous crisis of leadership and culture of violence.

The crisis of leadership was illuminated by documentation of unbridled public corruption on the FBI website. These shameful public corruption cases were compounded by my demonstration of nationwide media reports of corporate fraud, professional sports scandals, celebrity turpitude, and despicable crimes at the highest level of faith-based communities.

The culture of violence was emphasized through tragic incidents of domestic violence, hate-crimes, workplace violence, and terrorism, of violence against those who defend us, of violence by gangs, and of course school and campus violence.

In one slide, I shared a news story from Dec. 7, 1999 titled “Four hurt in gunfire at Oklahoma school: 13 year-old suspect subdued by teacher." The article, in the back pages of the paper, was used to dramatize that America’s horrific acts of violence were becoming commonplace and no longer making headline news.

Houses of Worship: Sanctuary Profaned

I also stressed to the audiences, and have now been doing so for nearly 20 years, that sites in America, previously understood to provide sanctuary, were not invulnerable. My presentations underscored that America would see intense, senseless, and unimaginable acts of violence in places thought to be sacrosanct, houses of worship.

Predictably, these acts of violence in houses of worship have occurred. They have involved the recent attack at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX where twenty-six were killed on Nov. 5, 2017. They have also included the following, which is tragically only a partial list:

• Burnette Chapel Church of Christ – Sept. 25, 2017, Antioch, Tenn., where a woman was killed walking to her car and congregants were indiscriminately shot in the sanctuary.
• Emanuel African Methodist Church – Jun. 17, 2015 in Charleston, SC where a white supremacist killed nine and injured another during their Bible study.
• Overland Park Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom Retirement Center – Apr. 13, 2014, Kansas, City, Kan. where a white supremacist killed three people.
• Saint Bernard Roman Catholic Churchh – Jan. 2, 2014, Eureka, Calif. where a Roman Catholic priest was found brutally murdered in the church rectory.
• First United Presbyterian Church – Dec. 3, 2012, Coudersport, Pa where a man walked into church in the middle of Sunday Advent services and fatally shot his ex-wife, Darlene Sitler, 53, while she sat in a pew. Darlene was the organist and choir director at the church.
• Muslim Center Education Mosque – Aug. 12, 2012, Morton Grove, Ill., where a man was arrested for shooting a high-velocity air rifle outside a mosque where hundreds of worshippers were celebrating Ramada.
• Sikh Temple of Wisconsin – Aug. 5, 2012, Oak Creek, Wis., where six people were killed. Five years later, the temple’s website cites that this was not only a Sikh tragedy but an American one.
• Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church – Jul. 27, 2008, Knoxville, Tenn., where two were killed and several others wounded by shotgun.
• Youth With a Mission – Dec. 9, 2007, Arvada, Colo. where a man and woman were killed and two men wounded at a school for missionaries.
• Living Church of God – Mar. 12, 2005, Brookfield, Wis. where a gunman opened fire at a worship service killing seven and wounding four.
• Wedgewood Baptist Church – Sept. 15, 1999, Fort Worth, Texas where a gunman invaded a youth prayer rally featuring a Christian rock group. The killer had 200 rounds of ammunition and a pipe bomb. Seven people were killed and seven others injured.

Violence Enters America’s Arteries

Since the aforementioned Dec. 7, 1999 news story reminded me of the Dec. 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, I used a clip during my presentations showing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). The clip was from his famous Infamy Speech to a Joint Session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941.

FDR stated, “Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy – the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked.”

This iconic clip was used to dramatize that if FDR were alive today, he would address a new infamy upon America, ignited by our crisis of leadership and culture of violence. I stressed that FDR would devote his energy to reawaken the nation to a renaissance of character. This character, in my opinion, is critical for vanquishing the violence that has entered into the very heart of America - in our schools, campuses, families, workplaces, and communities, against our police, and even in houses of worship.

America’s Violence Intensifies

Tragically, the Columbine massacre, which was the deadliest school attack in American history less than 20 years ago, was followed by additional grim statistics including Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook.

For a time, Columbine was also not only the most heart-breaking school violence tragedy, but one of America’s most deadly overall.

Unfortunately, the crisis as addressed in my article titled Mass Shootings: America’s Public Health Crisis, published in the Dec. 10, 2015 edition of the Epoch Times, not only continues but intensifies.

America is experiencing so many mass shootings, that Columbine has now faded from the list of the ten most deadly in modern U.S. history.

The current list, tragically subject to change at any time due to the intensifying violence in America, is as follows:

1. The Harvest Music Festival – Las Vegas, Nev., Oct. 1, 2017, 58 killed and over 500 injured.
2. Pulse Night Club – Orlando, Fla., Jun. 16, 2016, 49 killed, 50 injured.
3. Virginia Tech – Blacksburg, Va., Apr. 16, 2007, 32 killed and an estimated 20 injured.
4. Sandy Hook – Newtown, Conn., Dec. 14, 2012, 20 children ages 6 and 7 killed along with six adults.
5. First Baptist Church – Sutherland Springs, Texas, Nov. 5, 2017, 26 people killed including children in the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.
6. Luby’s Cafeteria – Killeen, Texas, Nov. 5, 1991, 23 people killed.
7. McDonalds – San Ysidro, Calif., Jul. 18, 1984, 21 adults including children killed.
8. University of Texas – Austin, Texas, Aug. 1, 1966, 16 killed and at least 30 wounded.
9. Inland Regional Center – San Bernardino, Calif., Dec. 2, 2015, 14 people killed at a state-run facility for individuals with developmental disabilities.
10. U.S. Postal Service – Edmond, Calif., Aug. 20, 1986, 14 postal employees killed.

America Wake-Up: Stop the Carnage

As the Columbine tragedy fades from the list of America’s most deadly mass shootings, it has become solemnly verified that these tragedies not only continue, but have become more deadly.

Four of the five deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the last five years, and we continue to witness America’s flag lowered to half-staff.

America, the land of the free and home of the brave must not allow these mass shootings to define us. We must also refuse to allow apathy to rule our times. America must never accept an attempt to banish these tragedies to back page news.

It is time for America to wake-up, to be reawakened, and to stop the carnage of the innocents by igniting the only force that will change the tide, our moral courage.

Related Coverage:

Mass Shootings, Police Fatalities: America’s Culture of Trauma

Las Vegas Tragedy: Compassion, Empathy, Sympathy

America’s Houses of Worship Require Enhanced Security

America, Wake Up: Harden Your Soft Targets

Sanctuary Profaned: Protecting America’s Houses of Worship

Note Well:

Linkedin: Vincent J. Bove Consulting, Speaker Services, Publishing

Join Vincent’s Linkedin Group: The Sentinel: Reawakening the Nation

Facebook: Vincent J. Bove Consulting, Speaker Services, Publishing

Vincent is author of 250 articles, including his weekly column titled “Reawakening the Nation” for the Epoch Times; 35 countries, 21 languages, and growing. As a national speaker, he has addressed audiences nationwide on issues critical to America including ethical leadership, violence prevention, and crisis planning.

Photo: An American flag hags upside down from a home near the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Nov. 6, 2017. On Nov. 5 a gunman, (Scott Olson/Getty Images)