Click2Flicks - Windtalkers, The Story Behind the Movie, Preface, Chapter 1

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top><table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff cellpadding=5> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b><i>WINDTALKERS</i><br> THE STORY BEHIND THE MOVIE</b></font></p>  <table width="590"> <tr> <td align="CENTER" valign="top" bgcolor="000000" colspan=2><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="3" color="FFFFFF"><b>STORY CHAPTER LINKS</b></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td align=center valign=top width=50%>  <table width="90%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" border="0"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><a href="#preface"><b>1. STORY PREFACE</b></a></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch2.htm">2. "THE LONG WALK"</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch3.htm">3. NAVAJO LIFE</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch4.htm">4. NAVAJO FAMILIES</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch5.htm">5. FUN TIMES</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch6.htm">6. THE NAVAJO NATION</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch7.htm">7. PHILIP JOHNSTON'S IDEA</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch8.htm">8. WHO WERE THE NAVAJO CODE TALKERS?</a></b></font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> <td align=center valign=top width=50%>  <table width=278 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=5 border=0> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch9.htm">9. WAR IN THE PACIFIC</a></b></font> </td> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch10.htm">10. THE BATTLE FOR SAIPAN</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch11.htm">11. CODE TALKERS AVOID DISASTER</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch12.htm">12. BANAZI CHARGE</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch13.htm">13. HARI-KARI: JAPANESE SUICIDES</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch14.htm">14. SAIPAN "SECURED"</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch15.htm">15. WINDTALKERS</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="254"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="wind_talkers_ch16.htm">16. CODE TALKERS HONORED</a></b></font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  <p><b><font size="3"><u><a name="preface">PREFACE</a></u></font></b></p> <div align=center><b><i><font face="Times New Roman" color="000000" size="3">Were it not for the Navajos,<br> the Marines would never<br> have taken <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/nativeamerican01/images/lflage.gif" target="_blank">Iwo Jima</a>!</b></font></i><font face="Times New Roman" color="000000" size="3"><br><br> Major Howard M. Conner<br> <i>The Navajo <a href="http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35leqxVBUyeb6pYQavucya2ScGhCtYipIHG7pfkzPzdg4dd1EJeyqVvE6R0WYRmoe8n6I=" target="_blank">Code Talkers</a></i></font><br><br> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">The United States was in serious trouble. Following its disastrous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan held the <a href="http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/dhistorymaps/images/WW2Asia/JPEG/wwiia16.jpg" target="_blank"><b>upper hand</b></a> in the Pacific. Japanese soldiers, wearing American high school and college rings, could speak English fluently and routinely intercepted, and decoded, American military messages. The U.S. needed what has always eluded a country at war: an unbreakable code.</p> <p>In February of 1942, <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1328" target="_blank"><b>Philip Johnston</b></a>, a civilian engineer and World War I veteran, had an idea. What if America’s military forces were to use the Navajo language as the basis of a secret code? Johnston knew something about that language. The <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1365" target="_blank"><b>son</b></a> of Protestant <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1403" target="_blank"><b>missionaries</b></a> to the <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1404" target="_blank"><b>Navajo</b></a> people, he had spent most of his life on, or <a href="http://www3.nau.edu/cline/imagedisplay.cfm?control_num=1397" target="_blank"><b>near</b></a>, the reservation. He was one of about 30 non-Navajos who could speak the unwritten, extremely difficult language.</p> <p>Writing a letter outlining his thoughts, Johnston set in motion a life-changing event for 29 Navajo men living on their ancestral homelands. Within months, those men would use their language to develop a code that was <a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0873586387.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif" target="_blank"><b>never broken</b></a> during the war.</p> <p>It remained a national secret until 1968.</p> </div> <p align="right"><font size="2"><a href="wind_talkers_ch2.htm">GO TO CHAPTER 2</a></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="3"><a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/content/about_author.htm" target="_blank"><b>Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.</b></center></a></p><br> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table>  </body>