The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was a “day that will live in infamy,” as proclaimed by President Franklin Roosevelt. It marked the entry of America into the Second World War, and every American citizen was affected in some way. Even America’s most isolated minority, the Native Americans, was thrust into the new era. By the spring of 1942, 547 Native Americans had volunteered for duty. By the end of World War II, approximately 25,000 Native Americans had served in the military. Among the earliest volunteers was a small group of Comanche Native Americans from the Lawton, Oklahoma, area, who were selected for special duty by the U.S. Army. They came to be known as Code Talkers, and they made crucial contributions to the Allied victory in Europe.
As a boy attending a boarding school, Charles Chibitty was punished for speaking the Comanche language. “They would run us through a belt line or make us wax floors,” Chibitty recalled. Ironically, it was his native tongue that was responsible for Chibitty and other tribal members being recruited into an elite World War II Army unit.
Signing Up for Service
William Karty was a 30-year-old Comanche who worked as the director of the Fort Cobb Indian Conservation Corps when the United States entered the war. He realized that the Comanche language could provide an unbreakable code for the U.S. Army. As Karty recalled, “I knew Comanches could talk on telephones and I knew the Army had radios, so I figured we could talk Comanche on them.”Karty recruited 20 young Comanche males to his project. When an Army officer learned about Karty’s initiative, he went “nuts” over the concept, according to Karty. Seventeen of Karty’s original 20 were enlisted into the U.S. Signal Corps. Over one third of all able-bodied Indian males ages 18 to 50 served in World War II. U.S. Senator Charles L. McNary remarked in the Saturday Evening Post, “We would not need the Selective Service if all volunteered like Indians. It is a good show of loyalty.”
Mama had a little money and sent for me to come home for Christmas. That’s when I heard they were recruiting Comanches to be Code Talkers. My mother didn’t want me to go. But I told her I would finish school later. That was December 1940.
An Ideal Code
Rapid, secret communication was crucial to successful military operations. The front lines required a constant flow of information in order to coordinate their movements. If vital information fell into enemy hands, the enemy had a tremendous advantage. However, there was nothing new about using code—military leaders had been doing so for over 2,000 years, dating back to the Greek and Persian wars.
In the 19th century, a German officer developed codes he called cryptograms. He determined which letters were used the most in a language and worked out ways to break codes. The Japanese were convinced that their “Purple Code” was indecipherable in World War II; however, American intelligence cracked the code early in the war, giving the Allies a great advantage. Many Native American languages had no written form, making it impossible for the enemy to decipher them.
During Combat
Charles Chibitty’s unit was among those that assaulted the beaches at Normandy on D-Day during the largest amphibious landing in history. His regiment came under heavy fire from Germans who were strategically placed on the cliffs overlooking the beaches. “Someone asked me what I was afraid of most,” Chibitty said. “Was I afraid of dying? No. That was something we had already accepted. But we landed in water that was deeper than anticipated. A lot of boys drowned. That’s what I was afraid of.”
Roderick Red Elk, a fellow Code Talker, had the unenviable duty of climbing a 20-foot pole to string telephone wire while attempting to dodge a hail of bullets. Miraculously, Red Elk was not hit, but Code Talker Forrest Kassanavoid was not as lucky, taking shrapnel wounds to his back. The first coded message Chibitty transmitted back to headquarters was, “5 miles to the right of designated area and 5 miles inland; the fighting is fierce and we need help.”
After the Normandy landing, the Code Talkers saw some of the heaviest action of the war. They were among the first troops to liberate Paris and the first infantry division to enter Germany. They participated in the breakthrough at St. Lo in July 1944, and in September of that year they drove through the Siegfried Line. The Code Talkers fought in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge, and they rescued the “Lost Battalion.”
Fresh troops would often ask Chibitty if he was scared in combat. He always replied, “If you weren’t scared you were either crazy or lying.” Chibitty and his colleagues often found themselves on the front lines equipped only with a .45 pistol, a helmet, and a radio. Two Comanches were assigned to each of the Fourth Division’s three regiments. They sent regular coded messages to headquarters, where other Comanches decoded their messages. Chibitty recalled the day that a soldier next to him was ripped apart with shrapnel. “His name was Private Mullins. I can’t remember his first name. I remember looking back and seeing him slumped over. He had been hit. I carried him 50 yards to a nearby basement. But he took two breaths and died.”
After the war, Chibitty moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He performed as a champion Indian dancer at pow-wows for the rest of his life and gave numerous presentations to schools and other groups about the Code Talkers. However, it wasn’t until over 40 years later that a series of belated honors was bestowed upon Chibitty and his fellow surviving Code Talker brothers. In 1989, the French Consul for Oklahoma and Texas honored the three surviving Code Talkers, Chibitty, Roderick Red Elk, and Forrest Kassanovoid with the Chevalier de L’Ordre du Merit. In 1992, Governor David Walters of Oklahoma also honored the Code Talkers for their extraordinary service. And in 1999, the U.S. Army presented a special award to Chibitty, then the last surviving Code Talker. In a ceremony at the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes, Chibitty received the Knowlton Award, which recognized individuals for outstanding intelligence work.
Just before his death on July 20, 2005, at the age of 83, Chibitty reminisced about the war: “We could never do it again. It’s all electronic and video in war now.” Even so, Chibitty and his Code Talker brothers played a vital role in the Allied victory in Europe.
