One of the last of the Navajo Code Talkers receives medal <F> | Courtesy/Walter Cody
Larry Kimmel, a member of the Arizona Territorial Gourd Society, give the Warrior Medal of Valor to Willard Oliver, left, on Tuesday. Oliver is one of the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers, who delivered secret military messages during World War II. | | | Friday, March 28, 2008Nerve damage and a trachea tube prevent Willard Oliver from speaking, but once that voice proudly carried messages that helped win World War II.
During the war Allied forces used American Indian languages as a code in order to confound the efforts of the Axis military to intercept and decode their communication. The American Indian soldiers who used their native tongues to protect military information are the Code Talkers.
"When he was in school, they told him not to speak Navajo - said they'd wash his mouth out with soap," said Nellie Oliver, Willard's wife. "In the war, they were pretty happy that he could speak Navajo. Then, they told him to forget about all that he did during the war. Now, a lot has been forgotten."
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