Navajo code-talkers help the U.S. seize Iwo Jima: Navajo Indians radio a message during fighting in the Pacific. The Navajo code-talker teams were used to relay radio and phone messages in their native dialect during combat operations. The method was fast and indecipherable to enemy eavesdroppers.
Thomas Claw
Navajo "Code-Talker" from World War II dies
PARKER, Ariz. - Thomas Claw, one of an elite group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, has died. He was 87.
Claw died Tuesday at the veterans hospital in Prescott after a battle with cancer, according to his son, Harold.
Harold Claw said his father freely spoke to groups about his role in the war until his health began to decline in recent years.
Claw was born in the Navajo community of Chinle in northeastern Arizona. He moved to an area near Parker in western Arizona in the late 1940s, where he and his wife raised a family.
February 23, 1922 - May 26, 2009
Thomas Claw
Memory Book
“Thanks for your service-I am grateful for your part in keeping us free. God Bless your family”
Posted by: Starr
