I was ten years old when the Pentagon finally declassified information about the Navajo code talkers who fought in the South Pacific during World War II. They had kept the information secret for 23-years. It was interesting news in our home because my father had been in some of the same battles as the 29 original code talkers. He was as amazed at the news as everybody else.

If you don’t know the story, I will repeat the basics here. Early in World War II as America was mobilizing to fight the Japanese, the military was struggling to find a verbal code that could be transmitted via radio during battles. The Japanese had managed to decode everything they came up with and horrible consequences had been the result.

Then a creative idea was suggested: recruit native Navaho speakers and allow them to create a code in their own language. The Navaho language has no written form, so there would be no resource for the Japanese to use. And obviously the Japanese would find the language incomprehensible (unless you are a native born speaker of the language, almost everybody finds the complicated language incomprehensible).

Chester Nez was in high school in 1942 when Marine recruiters came through his Navaho reservation in New Mexico. Within months he and 29 others had developed the code and found themselves in the midst of the battles of Guadalcanal. The code was an amazing triumph — it was simple, fast, and unbreakable. That’s why the military kept it a secret all of those years; nobody wants to even hint that they have an unbreakable code that might be useful in a future war.

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWIIby Judith Avila is the story of Chester Nez’ life. His years living on the Checkerboard in New Mexico and attending boarding school is the first part of the book. The bulk of the book naturally focuses on his experience in the war, and then there is another short section on what he has done over the last sixty years since the war. It’s a combination of his oral history and edited interviews. The writing (or the speaking, however you wish to look at it) is mediocre at times. But that adds to its charm and makes it feel that much more authentic.

Chester represents his people and his generation well. In how he views his country, the purpose of he war, the military, and his own values, he’s not that different from my Dad or the millions of others from that era. It’s an admirable way to live and he’s a man to be deeply appreciated.

I’m glad he wrote this book — which is subtitled “the first and only memoir by one of the original Navaho code talkers of World War II.” He has shared a piece of important history that our country needs to remember. That the world needs to remember.

This is not a “great” book in the sense that it will win a Pulitzer or even be at the top of the bestseller list. But it is a great book when measured by the story itself, and the sacrifice it represents. I highly recommend it.