Safeguarding Code Talker Legacies

Of the few hundred Navajo (Diné) Marines who served as code talkers during World War II, just three are still alive. Thanks to a unique collection of oral histories at the J. Willard Marriott Library, many more of their stories live on. The collection includes accounts recorded at a 1971 reunion in Arizona. “The voices of code talkers encrypted the vital command and control of Marine Corps operations in WWII, and today, through the invaluable special collection at the University of Utah, their voices reveal these details for posterity,” says Robert Peterson, acting director of the U.S. Marine Corps History Division. In this photo, Preston Toledo and his cousin, Frank Toledo, relay orders by radio in 1943.

Photo Courtesy of Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, C. Gregory Crampton Photograph Collection (P0197), Box 34, Folder 4