thedrifter
02-08-03, 10:19 AM
Dr. Samuel Billison
Young Marine, Fellow Navajo Code Talkers Create A Code Unfathomable To Enemy
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Dr. Samuel Billison, an educator and administrator for over 40 years, might seem an unlikely inspiration for a G.I. Joe doll. But one of the most recent plastic action figures is not only modeled after him, it contains his voice. Billison, who recorded the lines for "Navajo Code Talker G.I. Joe," was one of the original 29 Navajos recruited to construct what is perhaps the only unbroken military code in history.
Billison, who served with the 5th Marine Division, was also one of the six Navajo code talkers whose lightning-fast transmissions of over 800 error-free messages at Iwo Jima led Maj. Howard Connor, 5th Marines signal officer, to declare, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima." The entire operation there was directed through orders communicated by the code talkers.
The Navajo code talkers did not, however, merely speak to one another. Their far more valuable contribution was to fashion a new "dialect" of their language. With its complex syntax and intonation, Navajo has no alphabet or symbols. At the start of World War II, only about 30 non-Navajo people could speak the language. It was a self-contained communication system.
Samuel Billison is president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association, which has received much attention in the wake of recent books and documentaries. Two movies are in the works. One, by Red Horse Productions, has the approval of the Navajo Council. The other, "Windtalker," by director John Woo, does not. Billison has written to the actor slated to play a code talker's bodyguard to ask him "to reconsider, for the dignity of the Navajo ... Native American language is very powerful and very sacred."
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan paid tribute to the contributions of Billison and his fellow code talkers by declaring Aug. 14 to be Navajo Code Talkers Day.
Sempers,
Roger
Young Marine, Fellow Navajo Code Talkers Create A Code Unfathomable To Enemy
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Dr. Samuel Billison, an educator and administrator for over 40 years, might seem an unlikely inspiration for a G.I. Joe doll. But one of the most recent plastic action figures is not only modeled after him, it contains his voice. Billison, who recorded the lines for "Navajo Code Talker G.I. Joe," was one of the original 29 Navajos recruited to construct what is perhaps the only unbroken military code in history.
Billison, who served with the 5th Marine Division, was also one of the six Navajo code talkers whose lightning-fast transmissions of over 800 error-free messages at Iwo Jima led Maj. Howard Connor, 5th Marines signal officer, to declare, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima." The entire operation there was directed through orders communicated by the code talkers.
The Navajo code talkers did not, however, merely speak to one another. Their far more valuable contribution was to fashion a new "dialect" of their language. With its complex syntax and intonation, Navajo has no alphabet or symbols. At the start of World War II, only about 30 non-Navajo people could speak the language. It was a self-contained communication system.
Samuel Billison is president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association, which has received much attention in the wake of recent books and documentaries. Two movies are in the works. One, by Red Horse Productions, has the approval of the Navajo Council. The other, "Windtalker," by director John Woo, does not. Billison has written to the actor slated to play a code talker's bodyguard to ask him "to reconsider, for the dignity of the Navajo ... Native American language is very powerful and very sacred."
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan paid tribute to the contributions of Billison and his fellow code talkers by declaring Aug. 14 to be Navajo Code Talkers Day.
Sempers,
Roger