The nation loses another Navajo Code Talker

Friday was a sad day for many who knew Samuel Sandoval. Not only did he serve his country in the military, but he was one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers.

He died, late Friday, at a hospital in Shiprock, NM. He was 98.

During World War II, he was a Code Talker who transmitted messages using his native language. Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers because their language at that time, was unwritten and confounded Japanese military cryptologists, helping the United States win the war.

Of the 50,000 Navajo tribe members in 1942, 540 served as Marines, as of 1945 and approximately 400 of them were trained as Code Talkers.

According to news reports, San- doval enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at a Farmington, NM recruitment office when he was 18 years old.

“The Marine Corps was my choice, to begin with,” he told The Arizona Republic in a 2019 article.

He completed basic training and was transferred to advanced training at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif.

“We went into the big barracks not knowing what we’re getting into,” he said in The Arizona Republic article.

At first, there were 29 Code Talkers recruited by the Marines, in 1942. They were responsible for helping develop the unbreakable code used across the Pacific during World War II.

The Code Talkers sent thousands of messages on Japanese troop movements and battlefield tactics. Their mission remained secret until 1968.

During their service in the military, more than a dozen Code Talkers were killed in action and more than two dozen were wounded.

Sandoval was discharged from the military, in 1946. Stories about his experience as a Code Talker is recounted in “Naz Bah Ei Bijei: The Heart of a Warrior,” which is both a book and a documentary about Sandoval.

With the passing of Sandoval, only three Navajo Code Talkers remain: Thomas H. Begay, John Kinsel Sr. and Peter MacDonald.