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Code Talkers Return
Code talkers visit middle school, present Web site
By Tammy Anderson
Pacific Daily News

Although he left the beaches of Iwo Jima 61 years ago, the images of the island ravaged by bombs and gunfire never left the mind of Keith M. Little.

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As a Navajo code talker, Little spent 36 days on the island during one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. He returned to Iwo Jima Wednesday to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the battle.
"It was a great relief when the plane flew over it ... to look down on it. It was so peaceful," Little said.

Yesterday morning, a Web site telling the story of Little and five other Navajo code talkers was unveiled to a group of eighth-grade students gathered in the library at L.P. Untalan Middle School. Behind the students, three picture frames displayed signed photos of the code talkers from their visit last year.
Of the six code talkers who visited last year, four have returned for the second time to do additional filming for a documentary about their group and to visit Iwo Jima.
Victor Consaga/For Pacific Daily News
Code Talker: World War II U.S. Marine Corps veteran Navajo Code Talker Keith Little answers a student's question about how the war changed his life during a talk with students at the Untalan Middle School library March 9th.
During World War II, the code talkers used their native language to send crucial messages along the front lines. Unlike other codes, the one based on the Navajo language was never broken during the war.

Parts of the film about the lives of the Navajo Code talkers are being done on Guam because code talkers helped liberate the island in 1944. The documentary is expected to debut on primetime public television in the fall of 2007.

Little told the middle school students how he enlisted in May of 1943 at the age of 17. After boot camp and training as a code talker, Little experienced battle across the Pacific with the 4th Marine Division, Headquarters Company, radio unit from the Marshall Islands to Saipan and Tinian.

Little spoke slowly as he described his first trip back to the last battlefield he saw in 1945, on the bloody black beaches of Iwo Jima.

He described how as a teenager he was "dumped out in the middle of nowhere" and had to run up inclines to get into the thick of the heavy fighting.

Little was in the same division as fellow code talker Samuel Jesse Smith.

Smith's son, Michael Smith, said emotions mixed with the physical appearance of the island were draining for many who attended the anniversary Wednesday, Michael Smith said.

As a retired Marine, Michael Smith said he understands why his father seldom discussed his experience on Iwo Jima and the two years and nine months he spent in the service during World War II.
During World War II, the code talkers used their native language to send crucial messages along the front lines. Unlike other codes, the one based on the Navajo language was never broken during the war.
Parts of the film about the lives of the Navajo Code talkers are being done on Guam because code talkers helped liberate the island in 1944. The documentary is expected to debut on primetime public television in the fall of 2007.
Little told the middle school students how he enlisted in May of 1943 at the age of 17. After boot camp and training as a code talker, Little experienced battle across the Pacific with the 4th Marine Division, Headquarters Company, radio unit from the Marshall Islands to Saipan and Tinian.
Little spoke slowly as he described his first trip back to the last battlefield he saw in 1945, on the bloody black beaches of Iwo Jima.
He described how as a teenager he was "dumped out in the middle of nowhere" and had to run up inclines to get into the thick of the heavy fighting.
Little was in the same division as fellow code talker Samuel Jesse Smith.
Smith's son, Michael Smith, said emotions mixed with the physical appearance of the island were draining for many who attended the anniversary Wednesday, Michael Smith said.
As a retired Marine, Michael Smith said he understands why his father seldom discussed his experience on Iwo Jima and the two years and nine months he spent in the service during World War II.