One of original Navajo Code Talkers dies in Ariz.
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Photographer: iStock.com
Posted: 09/10/2010
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Allen Dale June, one of the 29 original Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, has died. He was 91.
Navajo Nation officials announced the death Thursday. They say June died Wednesday night at the Veteran Assistance Hospital in Prescott, Ariz.
The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They sent thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications critical to the war's ultimate outcome.
Several hundred Navajos served as Code Talkers during the war, but a group of 29 that included June developed the code based on their native language. Their role in the war wasn't declassified until 1968.
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