Code Talker, Chester Nez
Code Talker, Chester Nez
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Code Talker
The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII

Author: Chester Nez, Judith Schiess Avila

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 9 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 12/10/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII.

His name wasn’t Chester Nez. That was the English name he was assigned in kindergarten. And in boarding school at Fort Defiance, he was punished for speaking his native language, as the teachers sought to rid him of his culture and traditions. But discrimination didn’t stop Chester from answering the call to defend his country after Pearl Harbor, for the Navajo have always been warriors, and his upbringing on a New Mexico reservation gave him the strength—both physical and mental—to excel as a marine.

During World War II, the Japanese had managed to crack every code the United States used. But when the Marines turned to its Navajo recruits to develop and implement a secret military language, they created the only unbroken code in modern warfare—and helped assure victory for the United States over Japan in the South Pacific.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF which contains the Navajo Code Talkers’ Dictionary appendix from the book.

About The Author

Chester Nez was a World War II veteran who indispensably served his country as a Navajo code talker. He passed away in 2014.Judith Schiess Avila is a code talker scholar with the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities Chautauqua Program. She tours the state giving presentations on the topic.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Pam on June 23, 2022

Code Talker has a marvelous story to tell. The code talkers played a large role in WWII by developing and using the difficult and impenetrable Navajo language as a code for military communications. There have been other books and a movie about this subject, but none by an original code talker. Young......more

Goodreads review by Amber on June 05, 2014

Veterans’ Honor Song I read this book a while back, before I joined Goodreads. The author, the last of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers, died yesterday. Before I read this book, I'd heard of him and the work this group of Marines did, but I had no understanding of the danger they endured. The book......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on February 01, 2025

Chester Nez was one of 29 Navajo who served in the marines as "code talkers," starting in WWII. As of the printing of this edition in 2011, he was the only surviving member (he died at 93 in 2014). I don't really like war books as a genre. I didn't like the recounting of personal encounters with war......more

Goodreads review by Sweetwilliam on July 07, 2018

Code Talker is the biography of Navajo code talker, Chester Nez. Chester was one of the original Marine Code Talkers and he wrote a fairly interesting biography. I hadn’t realized just how important the Navajo code was to the Pacific War. Prior to the Navajo code, the Marines used a cumbersome code......more

Goodreads review by Mike on October 20, 2024

This is a very interesting book. It is the autobiography of one of the original Navaho code talkers. Charlie Nez describes his experiences growing up on the Checkboard reservation area of New Mexico and his experiences at boarding schools before joining the US Marines. He was one of 29 Navaho men ch......more

Quotes

Praise for Code Talker

“Gripping in its narrative, Code Talker is history at its best.”—Colonel Cole C. Kingseed, U.S. Army (Ret.), co-author of Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters

“A fascinating inside look at one of WWII’s most closely guarded secrets…This is an important book, a previously untold piece of our history.”—Marcus Brotherton, author of Shifty’s War
 
“You don’t need to be a fan of World War II literature to appreciate this memoir…a fascinating melange of combat in the Pacific theater, the history of the Navajo people and the development of a uniquely American code.”—Associated Press
 
“A unique, inspiring story by a member of the Greatest Generation.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A remarkably affecting first-person account of the Navajo Marines who served their country with distinction through some of the worst battles of the Pacific theater.”—The Washington Times

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