Roy Hawthorne, USMC. Former Navajo code talker. Roy walked the 2 mile parade route. With 1/2 mile left, he got tired and was assisted by two current Navajo marines
According to Facebook (which appears to be the source of this image):
August 22, 2013
Veteran of the day: Roy Hawthorne (middle) served as a Navajo Code Talker. He was walking on a two-mile parade route during National Navajo Code Talkers Day in Window Rock, Ariz., when two Marines began helping him on the last half mile. Thank you for your service, Roy!
"Germany and Japan sent students to the United States after World War I to study Native American languages and cultures, such as Cherokee, Choctaw, and Comanche.
Because of this, many members of the U.S. military services were uneasy about continuing to use Code Talkers during World War II. They were afraid the code would be easily cracked, but that was before they learned about the complexity of Navajo.
The Navajo language seemed to be the perfect option as a code because it is not written and very few people who aren’t of Navajo origin can speak it.
However, the Marine Corps took the code to the next level and made it virtually unbreakable by further encoding the language with word substitution.
During the course of the war, about 400 Navajos participated in the code talker program."
Spartan2470 on August 29th, 2017 at 13:37 UTC »
According to Facebook (which appears to be the source of this image):
RaceHard on August 29th, 2017 at 13:55 UTC »
Question: why is one marine wearing gloves and the other not?
Sumit316 on August 29th, 2017 at 13:58 UTC »
"Germany and Japan sent students to the United States after World War I to study Native American languages and cultures, such as Cherokee, Choctaw, and Comanche.
Because of this, many members of the U.S. military services were uneasy about continuing to use Code Talkers during World War II. They were afraid the code would be easily cracked, but that was before they learned about the complexity of Navajo.
The Navajo language seemed to be the perfect option as a code because it is not written and very few people who aren’t of Navajo origin can speak it.
However, the Marine Corps took the code to the next level and made it virtually unbreakable by further encoding the language with word substitution.
During the course of the war, about 400 Navajos participated in the code talker program."