Ken Marich
The Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) is proud to sponsor a free two-hour presentation by Terry Caldwell on the Navajo Code Talkers. The lecture will be on Wednesday, Nov. 13, starting at 4 p.m. in the DesertView Theater (mark your calendar!). Terry is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and a SaddleBrooke resident.
Terry’s talk will focus on the role of Navajo Marines and their support of the U.S. Marine Corp in the World War II Pacific theater, specifically, their pivotal role in developing a classified “code that was never broken” based upon the extraordinarily complex Navajo language. The Navajo Code Talkers were used to send and receive messages at the highest military echelons. He will explain the process for the recruitment of Navajos from reservation boarding schools here in the Southwest, their USMC training at Camp Elliott near San Diego, difficulties earning trust, and strategic deployment throughout the Pacific. Discussed will be how the unwritten Navajo language was changed into the English language ABCs, identifying unique military terms like officer ranks, military organizations, airplanes, tanks, ships, ammunition, locations, and guns. Navajo Code Talkers participated with radio transmissions and in maneuvers for key battles, including those on Saipan, Okinawa, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima.
Terry will also explore their return home from the battle grounds to the reservation. Cleansing ceremonies, such as the Enemy Way, were performed to help heal the terrible battle scars from their war experiences. Department of Defense declassification of the Navajo Code Talkers dictionary occurred in 1968, and the eventual recognition of their war contributions began 25 years after the end of World War II.
Terry was in the active-duty Army Nurse Corps for 25 years. While working at 5th General Hospital, Stuttgart, West Germany, in 1985, he met his future wife Ruth who was also working at the same U.S. Army hospital as an OB nurse. After military retirement, they moved to Tucson in 1998, followed by a move to SaddleBrooke in 2015. Terry is the president of the SaddleBrooke Coin Club and will display an impressive collection of medals commemorating the Navajo Code Talkers.