The Code Talkers succeeded because Diné Bizaad was difficult for Japanese analysts, because the code built on top of it added additional security, because the men who used it were trained and effective communicators, and because they performed those duties under combat conditions with the discipline and reliability that the Marine Corps had trained them to maintain.

The Voices of the Men

In the oral histories and interviews that were recorded after the declassification — and in the more recent recordings made as the surviving Code Talkers have grown very old — the voices of the men themselves provide something that documents and operational records cannot.

Several themes recur across different voices.

The pride in the language is consistent and clear.

Multiple Code Talkers, in recorded interviews conducted at various times after declassification, described the experience of using Diné Bizaad in service of a military mission as something that connected their service to their identity in a way that military service alone might not have.