[Omah]

Originally Posted by jedward fever

Im not up to date with all the codes,but if that's what terrorists use then yes they might use it to cover up there dirty plans.

Using the Navajo tribe of American Indians to provide cipher service during WW2 was the brainchild of Philip Johnston, the son of missionaries who grew up on a Navajo Reservation. The Navajos were a fierce tribe of warrior stock and their language was oral only.

Johnston saw some Indian tribes used to encipher messages in WW1, so he took this proposal to the US Marine Corps in February of 1942, just two months after the Pearl Harbor attack. In March of 1942 he was asked to give a demonstration to Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet. He showed that under battlefield conditions, the Navajos could encipher, transmit and decipher a 3 line English message in 20 seconds compared to the 30 minutes required for the cipher machine in use at the time, the M-209. The first 29 Navajo code talkers were recruited in May of 1942 as a test of the program, which proved so successful 420 Navajo code talkers entered the Marine Corps.

The Navajos seem to take the rigorous Marine Corps boot camp training in stride, seemingly unaware they were being physically challenged. They did not have modern conveniences at home and were used to a life of deprivation and hardship. They were not used to the loss of freedom and close quarters of the military, however, but adjusted well. When the drill sergeants would yell at the recruits, "Anyone tired of walking can start running!", the Navajo did not understand sarcasm and would start running.

The Navajos played a significant role in every major battle of the Pacific from mid-1942 in the battle of Guadalcanal to the end of the war.

After the war, the Navajo cipher remained a secret in case it needed to be used again. And, in fact, the code talkers were called on again for use in the Korean War and at the beginning of the Vietnam War.

http://ciphermachines.com/navajo