They were also, for many Code Talkers and their families, bittersweet.

The recognition that arrived in 2001 and 2008 came too late for most of the original Code Talkers to receive it personally.

The men who had been young Marines at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima would have been in their eighties and nineties in 2001, had they survived.

Most had not.

What the Simplified Story Misses

The popular narrative of the Navajo Code Talkers, as it has circulated in film, television, museum exhibits, and general histories, tends to follow a particular arc: the brilliant idea, the heroic service, the triumph at Iwo Jima, the long-delayed recognition, the ultimate vindication.