thedrifter
05-02-07, 08:03 AM
WWII Navajo code talker dies
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 2, 2007 7:19:23 EDT
TSE’ DAA’ KAAN, N.M. — A Navajo code talker who was awarded a congressional silver medal for his service in World War II has died.
Stewart Clah of Tse’ Daa’ Kaan died Sunday in his sleep, his family said. He was 87.
The code talkers were an elite group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during the war by transmitting messages in their native language.
Clah’s family members said he told them little about his days of combat but enjoyed swapping tales with fellow code talkers. They would drink coffee and talk so loudly in Navajo that it drove Clah’s daughter, Lucille Harris, from the house, she said.
When he went out of town, Clah often wore a black Code Talker baseball cap with the words, “I served with pride.”
As a young boy, Clah attended boarding school in Shiprock, where staff members cut off his long hair and punished him for speaking Navajo. He graduated from Shiprock Agricultural High School in 1940 and joined the military soon after.
In the military, he served in Midway, Saipan, Guam and Guadalcanal, transmitting radio message in the unbreakable Navajo-based code.
In August 1945, he was stationed in Nagasaki, Japan, where he spent the next four months occupying the empty, bombed-out city.
He returned to Shiprock that December and worked as a cook and a baker at the boarding school and later at the BHP Navajo Mine as a security guard. He retired in 1987.
On Monday, an American flag flew at half-staff outside his daughter’s house in Tse’ Daa’ Kaan. Every Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Clah directed his children to raise a flag and take it down at night.
“He didn’t like to see anyone abuse the flag,” said his son, Darrell Clah.
Ellie
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 2, 2007 7:19:23 EDT
TSE’ DAA’ KAAN, N.M. — A Navajo code talker who was awarded a congressional silver medal for his service in World War II has died.
Stewart Clah of Tse’ Daa’ Kaan died Sunday in his sleep, his family said. He was 87.
The code talkers were an elite group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during the war by transmitting messages in their native language.
Clah’s family members said he told them little about his days of combat but enjoyed swapping tales with fellow code talkers. They would drink coffee and talk so loudly in Navajo that it drove Clah’s daughter, Lucille Harris, from the house, she said.
When he went out of town, Clah often wore a black Code Talker baseball cap with the words, “I served with pride.”
As a young boy, Clah attended boarding school in Shiprock, where staff members cut off his long hair and punished him for speaking Navajo. He graduated from Shiprock Agricultural High School in 1940 and joined the military soon after.
In the military, he served in Midway, Saipan, Guam and Guadalcanal, transmitting radio message in the unbreakable Navajo-based code.
In August 1945, he was stationed in Nagasaki, Japan, where he spent the next four months occupying the empty, bombed-out city.
He returned to Shiprock that December and worked as a cook and a baker at the boarding school and later at the BHP Navajo Mine as a security guard. He retired in 1987.
On Monday, an American flag flew at half-staff outside his daughter’s house in Tse’ Daa’ Kaan. Every Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Clah directed his children to raise a flag and take it down at night.
“He didn’t like to see anyone abuse the flag,” said his son, Darrell Clah.
Ellie