World War II Code Talker Samuel Tom Holiday dies
Samuel Tom Holiday, one of the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers who used his native language to create an uncrackable code to help win World War II, died in southern Utah at age 94 on Monday.
Holiday was known in the area for his attendance at veterans events and his visits sharing his experiences with schoolchildren. He spent his later days living at the Southern Utah Veterans Home in Ivins.
Holiday will be buried on the Navajo Reservation in Kayenta, according to Tya Redhouse, his granddaughter.
Redhouse said Holiday died Monday evening, surrounded by friends and family who traveled to be with him.
Navajo leaders believe fewer than 10 Code Talkers are still alive today. The exact number is unknown because the program remained classified for decades after the war.
Holiday, who was born to a medicine woman in Monument Valley, was unsure of his exact birthday, but family members assigned him the date of June 2, 1924, based on the weather and season at the time.
Holiday was 19 when he went through Marine Corps boot camp in 1943. He joined a group of Native Americans who used their native language, which had complex grammar and was unfamiliar to the rest of the world, to develop a communication code for the U.S. military that enemies could not decipher.
Twenty-nine Navajos were recruited to launch the Code Talkers program, but there were more than 400 by the end of the war.
Chester Nez, the last of the original 29, died in 2014 at age 93.
Holiday's Code Talker partner in the war, Dan Akee Sr. of Tuba City, died in October at age 96.
During the war, Holiday served with the 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, joining operations in Saipan, Iwo Jima, Tinian, Marshall Island and other parts of the Pacific Theater.
An exploded mortar injured one of his ears, which he said left him with some hearing loss. He would later tell his family that, despite that, he always felt safe during battle, protected by a pouch worn around his neck that held sacred stones and yellow corn pollen.
Holiday said in a recent interview that on two occasions he was mistaken for a Japanese solider by his fellow Americans, with some of the men who knew him jumping in to defend him. That, however, did not cause his dedication to the cause to waver, he said.
After the war, Holiday returned to the Navajo Reservation, working as a police officer and ranger before starting his own heavy-equipment company.