WWII Navajo Code Talker Roy Hawthorne Sr. dies in Arizona at 92

Navajo Code Talker Roy Hawthorne, who used his native language as an uncrackable code during World War II, died Saturday.

At 92, he was one of the last surviving Code Talkers.

Hawthorne was 17 when he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and became part of a famed group of Native Americans who encoded hundreds of messages in the Navajo language to keep them safe from the Japanese. Hawthorne served in the 1st Marine Division in the Pacific Theatre and was promoted to corporal.

The code was never broken.

“The longer we live, the more we realize the importance of what we did, but we’re still not heroes — not in my mind,” Roy Hawthorne said in 2015.

But Hawthorne's son, Regan Hawthorne, said Monday his father leaves a proud legacy.

"They went in out of a sense of duty and a spirit of responsibility to their country," Regan Hawthorne said, adding he didn't know about his father's military service until he was in his 20s.

MORE: Navajo Code Talkers created an unbreakable code. It helped win WWII

"I grew up not knowing my dad was a Code Talker. He never talked about it, didn't see the need to talk about it," he said.

The Code Talkers believed they were just doing their job, he said, and shied away from receiving accolades for their service.

"When we read about the effect the Navajo Code had on shortening the war because of its effectiveness, we think about the guys who did that," Regan Hawthorne said. "(But) they're simply humble men who performed what they sensed to be a duty to protect all they cherished."

He said his father and other Code Talkers returned home from the war and "simply came back to work and went back to making a life."

As of 2016, there were about a dozen Code Talkers still living. The exact number of Code Talkers is unknown because their work was classified for years after the war ended.

The last of the original Code Talkers died in 2014. Hawthorne was one of an increasingly rare second generation, who assisted with communications that could not be cracked by cryptographers in Tokyo, who routinely deciphered less obscure codes used by U.S. forces in the Pacific.

The code, thought of by Army engineer Philip Johnston and crafted by the original 29 Code Talkers, was designed by attaching familiar words in the Navajo language to English letters.

"A." was Wol-la-chee, which meant ant.

"B." was Shush, or bear.

"C." Moasi. Cat.

"D." Be. Deer.

The word "enemy," E-N-E-M-Y, would be Dzeh — Nesh-chee — Dzeh — Na-as-tsosi — Tash-as-zih.

Because written record of the language was scarce, its syntax and grammar were elaborate and the spoken language used tones that were difficult for an untrained ear to understand, they used this language to communicate secretly and confuse the Japanese during the war.

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye offered his condolences to Hawthorne's family and fellow Code Talkers after learning of his death.

“Code Talker Hawthorne is highly respected,” Begaye said in a statement. “He was not only a hero and a warrior, but also as a true spokesman who worked on behalf of the welfare of the Navajo Code Talkers consistently. It is a privilege to have known him and I extend my condolences to his family, his fellow Navajo Code Talkers and his comrades.”

Hawthorne is survived by five children and more than a dozen grandchildren. A funeral service is scheduled for Friday at Tsé Si aní Baptist Church in Lupton.

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