Judith Schiess Avila

I am still pinching myself...Am I dreaming?

I had the good luck to meet Chester and Mike Nez (son) four and a half years ago. Since then Chester and I have written his memoir, "Code Talker." It is already on pre-sale at Amazon and will be out (from Berkley/Penguin) on September 6, 2011!

I worked as a social worker, an air traffic controller, and a computer consultant before discovering writing. I grew up in Thornwood, NY and graduated from Westlake High School. Next, I earned my BA from Duke University. I now live in New Mexico, near Albuquerque. The population out here is a fascinating blend of Native American, Hispanic and Mexican, African American and Anglo.

On to our memoir...

In the Marines in WWII, Chester was one of the top secret Navajo code talkers. As an "original" code talker, he was among the 29 men who developed and implemented the secret code. (He is the last of those 29 men still surviving.) The Navajo code uses both English and Navajo, and it is doubly encrypted. It is the only code in modern warfare that has never been cracked. Not even other Navajos could decipher the code!

This memoir is the only one ever written by a Navajo code talker.

Chester's story digs deep, getting into the nitty gritty of his childhood years herding sheep and attending boarding school, and of his time fighting in the Pacific War. In many ways it preserves the story of an entire generation of Navajos, touching upon their customs and their integration into modern American life.

Who were these elite Native American Marines who developed and implemented the unbreakable code? Even the men fighting side-by-side with the code talkers were denied knowledge of their top secret assignment. But the Naavajo code talkers were so crucial to the war effort that their ranks expanded to include approximately 420 men. And after the war, the men were forbidden to speak, even to their families, of the covert service they performed on behalf of their nation. Only in 1968, twenty-three years after the war ended, was the code finally declassified. In 2001 the men were honored with Congressional Gold and Silver Medals.

I hope you will read "Code Talker" and that you will enjoy it as much as Chester and I enjoyed writing it.

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