I had a very nice experience yesterday. Navajo code talker, Peter MacDonald, Sr., spoke at the Jordan Auditorium on the Norte Dame campus. He is one of five surviving code talkers at 91 years of age. For a good hour and twenty minutes he told of enlisting in the Marine Corps at age 15. The training and secrecy surrounding the code talkers and how that followed them into battle.
I have no doubt without the Navajo code talkers the Pacific Theater would have taken longer, with the loss on more lives, and perhaps even looked differently from when the war ended. Mr. MacDonald was as sharp as a tac can be and his pride in being a Marine and able to serve his country in the capacity he did was very evident in the words he spoke and the brightness of his face.
I have no doubt without the Navajo code talkers the Pacific Theater would have taken longer, with the loss on more lives, and perhaps even looked differently from when the war ended. Mr. MacDonald was as sharp as a tac can be and his pride in being a Marine and able to serve his country in the capacity he did was very evident in the words he spoke and the brightness of his face.