To Honor Some Heroes

April 3 2009 by Sam Lowe

blog-4-photo.jpgThe Navajo Code Talkers are part of our generation because they, like us, are now seniors. So paying tribute to their heroic deeds is a worthwhile trip that not only honors some relatively unsung war heroes, but also takes senior travelers to many of the places we used to read about in National Geographic.



It's a colorful trek across the red deserts of northeastern Arizona and it requires a bit of planning because there is no single, centrally-located museum that honors the Code Talkers. That means it's at least a two-day driving experience that takes in some of the state's more scenic landscapes.

The Code Talkers were young Navajos recruited by the military to develop a code that the Japanese could not break during World War II. They were selected because their people communicated through an unwritten language of extreme complexity that was spoken only on the tribal lands of the American Southwest.

After creating the code, they were deployed to the Pacific theater where they transmitted information on tactics and troop movements so skillfully that the Japanese were unable to decipher a single message. But their efforts went unheralded until 1968 when the story of their heroism was declassified. More than 30 years later, an Act of Congress awarded Congressional Medals of Honor to all of them, gold to the first 29 and silver to the more than 400 who followed.

Arizona's official Code Talker Museum is located in an annex at the rear of a trading post in Tuba City, so it's a logical place to start your journey of tribute. Although small, it tells their story quite well through the use of film clips, photographs and displays of arms, radios and other equipment used during their campaigns on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Then it's on to Kayenta, about 70 miles north, where Richard Mike has established two Code Talker displays, one in the Burger King he owns and another in a small wooden building right next door to the motel he also owns and gives senior discounts. King Mike, Richard's father, was a Code Talker so most of the artifacts came from his personal collection.

The spectacular red rock formations of Monument Valley Tribal Park are only 23 miles north of Kayenta. Although it's a national park, it's managed by the Navajos so there's an entry fee for everyone, including those who display a Golden Age passport. But you'll consider that a minor inconvenience after your first glimpse of the magnificent sandstone monoliths in the park. There's also a Code Talker display inside the visitor center.

Two sculptures complete the journey. In Window Rock, a bronze replication of a Code Talker in full battle gear stands next to the hole-in-the-rock formation that gives the town its name. The other is a huge bronze of a seated Navajo at the corner of Thomas Road and Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix.

There are no senior discounts at any of those last four sites. But that's not bad news because there are no entry fees at any of them, either.

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