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Navajo Code Talker who battled cancer dies
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Tribal officials say another Navajo Code Talker has died, the third within a two-week span.
Willie K. Begay, of Pinon, Ariz., died Monday after a battle with cancer, according to one of his daughters. He was 88.
Previously, Code Talker John Brown Jr. died May 20 at his home in Crystal, N.M., at age 88 and Thomas Claw died May 26 at age 87 at the veterans hospital in Prescott, Ariz.
Begay was part of an elite group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language.
"Yet another of our distinguished warriors from World War II," Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. said of Begay, who was born in Forest Lake, Ariz., and enlisted in the Marines in August 1944.
He was sent to California's Camp Pendleton and trained as a code talker. Begay served with the 3rd Marine Division and was overseas for 11 months.
In 2001, he received a Congressional Silver Medal in recognition of his service as a Navajo Code Talker.
Begay, who worked at the Pinon Trading Post from 1946 until his retirement in 1984, is survived by his wife and five children. Services are set for Friday in Forest Lake.
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Tribal officials say another Navajo Code Talker has died, the third within a two-week span.
Willie K. Begay, of Pinon, Ariz., died Monday after a battle with cancer, according to one of his daughters. He was 88.
Previously, Code Talker John Brown Jr. died May 20 at his home in Crystal, N.M., at age 88 and Thomas Claw died May 26 at age 87 at the veterans hospital in Prescott, Ariz.
Begay was part of an elite group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language.
"Yet another of our distinguished warriors from World War II," Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. said of Begay, who was born in Forest Lake, Ariz., and enlisted in the Marines in August 1944.
He was sent to California's Camp Pendleton and trained as a code talker. Begay served with the 3rd Marine Division and was overseas for 11 months.
In 2001, he received a Congressional Silver Medal in recognition of his service as a Navajo Code Talker.
Begay, who worked at the Pinon Trading Post from 1946 until his retirement in 1984, is survived by his wife and five children. Services are set for Friday in Forest Lake.
See you on the high ground Marine...
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