Marines honor ancestors, ties to Navajo Code Talkers

Courtesy Photo | Private 1st Class Leroy Johns Sr., grandfather, or cheii’ to Lance Cpl. Devin Bidtah, a field radio operator with Regimental Combat Team 2, was a Navajo Code Talker. Pictured here in Guadalcanal during World War II, Johns’ service inspired his grandson, Devin Bidtah, as he now serves today, deployed to Nimruz province, Afghanistan. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo)  

FOWARD OPERATING BASE DELARAM II, AFGHANISTAN

11.19.2010

Story by Sgt. Dean Davis 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELARAM II, Afghanistan – Many triumphs and sacrifices distinguish the military service of the Navajo people. Perhaps most famous, is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers.

During World War II these men ciphered thousands of battlefield messages in the Pacific theatre, saving countless lives and helping end the war.

Few of these men are still here today to tell their account, but as Lance Cpl. Devin Bidtah, a Navajo Code Talker descendant explains, their legacy still thrives, and their story that inspired so many, will be honored.

“The Navajos have a strong history in serving,” said Bidtah, a field radio operator with Regimental Combat Team 2. “As my Navajo elders are watching, I try not to upset them. Being out here, I try to do my best.”

Bidtah is not alone in his efforts. Here at Delaram II he has three brothers.
They are brothers as Marines, but more profoundly, because their clan ties bind them through the retracing of their ancestry.

“Coming out here, the only family you really have is your platoon,” said Lance Cpl. Travis Yazzie, a field radio operator with 5th Battalion, 11th Marines.

After arriving, Yazzie and Pfc. Uriah Billie, a high school friend of Bidtah, saw him around camp.

“I met Lance Cpl. Bidtah and we talked. We compared our clans,” said Yazzie, 22, from Rocky Ridge, Ariz.

They discovered that they were related. Along with Lance Cpl. James Nelson, a friend of Bidtah’s since radio operator school, the four brothers now enjoy a company others can’t fully appreciate.

“When I found out James and I shared clans, it brought us closer, it made us family” said Bidtah, 20, from Shiprock, N.M.

For as close as they are now, these Marines all have different stories of how they came to be in the same place.

For Lance Cpl. Bidtah, the events that brought him here were set in motion by the actions of his grandfather, or cheii’, Leroy Johns Sr. and his fellow Code Talkers many years ago.

“I was going to join the army,” said Bidtah, about the day he was rummaging through his cheii’s things. “I found the presidential medal the Code Talkers received.

“I have always tried to be the best at everything, why stop?” said Bidtah. “He was a Marine. I wanted to follow on that same path.”

That path Leroy Johns Sr. and his fellow Marines embarked upon was not an easy one.

The fierce fighting in such places as Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Peleliu found the Code Talkers battling the Japanese in dense jungle and sweltering heat.

Because no written key to the secret language was permitted in theatre for fear it may be discovered, these Navajo became “walking codes,” carrying the source of their encryptions entirely by memory.

In the first two days of fighting at Iwo Jima, the Code Talkers transcribed more than 800 messages, with perfect accuracy.

At the war’s end, they were sworn to secrecy. The oath these silent warriors honored protected the secret techniques, but also served to deny them the accolades they deserved.

Decades later the Code Talkers were acknowledged, and awarded gold and silver Congressional medals, one of which Bidtah found that fateful day he decided to join the Corps.

“It’s an honor,” Bidtah said. “It feels good knowing my cheii’ did something good for the Navajo people; his name; our family.”

Bidtah, Billie, Nelson and Yazzie continue to honor the deeds of their grandfathers as Marines by doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.

They also revere the traditions of their people. Through rituals such as a “fanning off” ceremony, where they burn bits of cedar and talk about their pasts and futures, they reflect on the paths they have chosen, hoping their actions will be akin to those who have gone before them.

“It’s a blessing. I’m very honored to know that someone in my bloodline was a Navajo Code Talker,” said Nelson, 20, from Jeddito, Ariz. “Knowing what huge sacrifices they gave is big part of why I serve today.”

• Date Taken: 11.19.2010
• Date Posted: 11.19.2010 00:25
• Story ID: 60439
• Location: FOWARD OPERATING BASE DELARAM II, AF