ecret-say ode-cay alkers-tay get to be in a parade!

[rmd]

13 of the surviving navajo code talkers from WWII are going to be in the nyc veteran's day parade

cool.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

That *is* cool.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Wow... that IS really cool.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

So, they're finally de-classified then?

Glad they're marching.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

yay cool! :)

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

That is very cool!

[gayathri.livejournal.com]

they've been declassified since the Carter administration, i thought?

RMD, I went to the codetalkers museum in Kayenta, AZ, which was hosted at the time in a McDonalds. I think I burst out crying, it was amazing and generous and humbling.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

earlier than that -- they were declassified in 1968.

i'm particularly stunned at both the code talkers and the army 442nd infantry regiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)), given that both groups were staggeringly heroic and both were pretty oppressed at the time -- some of the 442nd enlisted straight out of the california concentration camps, and it had been only 80 years since "the long walk" forced resettlement of the navajo people.

[mtnvwpilot.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time on my grandparents' cattle ranch in north-central Arizona, about midway between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon. We only got one TV station, the local NBC affiliate in Flagstaff (Channel 2). Every weekday at lunchtime, they aired the "Navajo Nation Report", which was a 30 minute news program, broadcast in Navajo. It really is a unique language, unlike any other I've ever heard.

[gayathri.livejournal.com]

http://www.azcentral.com/travel/features/articles/2008/12/05/20081205codetalk1205.html

SRSLY - both groups make me want to continue to fight to make this the country our founders dreamt about, for _everyone_, not just white european men. :)