HDTV crew films Navajo Code Talkers’ visit

Touching the microphone as if checking the sound system, Navajo Code Talker Albert Smith gently whispered into it a complex series of sounds before beginning his invocation during yesterday’s brief ceremony for the returning Navajo Code Talkers. Smith ended his prayer with another exhalation and a whisper of unintelligible words into the microphone. He then explained that what he just did was send out some code at the start and at the end of his prayer.

“A code I sent to God,” he said.

Smith is one of three Navajo Code Talkers who have returned to the CNMI since their last visit in 1995. Fourth Marine Division PFCs Sam Smith and Keith Little joined him in a brief ceremony at American Memorial Park’s Court of Honor.

The three arrived yesterday from Guam, where they had returned with three others for the filming of a 90-minute public television documentary entitled America’s Native Heroes: The Lives and Times of the Navajo Code Talkers. The special will document the Code Talkers’ war exploits and tell for the first time their stories of life on the reservation before the war and afterwards.

In yesterday’s ceremony, Albert Smith gave thanks for their presence on the island. “Thank you for your inviting us here. This is a little encouragement to honor what is left of the ancient days,” Albert Smith said.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta welcomed the Navajo Code Talkers whom he said helped save several lives during World War II. “It is your special skills that saved lives and helped win the war,” he said.

The governor and Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio helped the Military Veterans Affairs Office in handing out commemorative coins and medals to the visiting Navajo Code Talkers.

Yesterday was also proclaimed as Navajo Code Talkers Day. VFW Post 3457 commander Barry Hirshbein read the proclamation that was signed by the governor.

The two Smiths and Little laid a wreath at the Court of Honor and Sgt. Daniel Quitugua played taps to end the ceremony. The group then proceeded to the Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach for a special dinner. The group’s activities ended last night with a visit to the American Memorial Park Visitor Center for a brief symposium and question-and-answer portion open to the public.

The Navy Beach Group 1 of San Diego, California also attended the ceremony. The visiting sailors are here for a regular inspection of the pre-positioned ships in the CNMI.

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3457, Committee for the 60th World War II Anniversary chair Jerry Facey, Office of the Insular Affairs field representative Jeff Schorr, Historic Preservation Officer historian Genevieve Cabrera, among others, also attended the ceremony. MVAO executive officer Ruth Coleman hosted the event.

High-definition TV special

After six decades of liberty in the Pacific, six of the Navajo Code Talkers have come back to share their memories with their wives, children, and grandchildren traveling with them, and, ultimately, for large television and educational audiences when the high-definition television documentary specials have been completed.

The director of photography on this shoot is Vincent Gancie, founder and director of the Santa Fe High Definition Workshops, which give seminars throughout North America and Europe on the use of the new HDTV equipment.

Following production of the special, the producers will create from the HD footage a comprehensive multimedia package of materials for use in schools. And an interactive website at www.TheNavajoCodeTalkers.com will tie it all together with background, updates and correspondence amongst students, Code Talkers, and documentary-makers.

Roy Kahn, a Navajo Code Talkers Project producer who created the website, will be with the production team gathering material for the site and the educational program. He will send reports out daily from the locations to the website where students can follow the activities of the Code Talkers generally.

The entire Navajo Code Talkers Project—TV special, educational program, and museum exhibit—will take at least two years to complete, the producers estimate. When they return home to New Mexico, they will prepare to conduct numerous interviews with Code Talkers who could not make the journey “Back to the Battlefields” (the theme of the Pacific portion of the production). They will also visit with two Code Talkers at Camp Pendleton in southern California where the first 29 Navajo recruits created the code in 1942.

Funding for this first phase of the documentary was provided by a special appropriation of the New Mexico State Legislature, which wants to insure that the story of the Code Talkers will not be forgotten by younger generations. Two of the six Code Talkers are from New Mexico, and the others are from Arizona. The Navajo Reservation includes lands within Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.

Led by executive producer and historian George Colburn, Ph.D., the production unit is following these six surviving Navajo Code Talkers and their families on a two-week tour of several former battlegrounds of the Pacific. Besides Guam and Saipan, stops on this trip will include Tinian. In the spring, three Code Talkers will return to visit Iwo Jima and Okinawa—islands of Japan. All of these islands were the sites of major U.S. victories in the bloody “island-hopping” campaign to win the Pacific Theater.