The radio operators who used these sets — Code Talkers among them — typically worked in conditions that made precision difficult.

Combat positions were often in exposed terrain: on ridgelines overlooking landing beaches, in jungle clearings hacked out of dense vegetation, on the slopes of volcanic mountains where Japanese fortifications were placed to maximize their defensive advantage.

The operator who needed to transmit a message might be lying in a shallow scrape in the ground while artillery fire was impacting nearby, or crouching behind a rock formation while Japanese rifle fire snapped overhead.

In these conditions, the speed of the Navajo code was not simply a convenience.

It was a genuine operational advantage.

The longer a radio operator was transmitting, the longer he was potentially locating himself for the enemy.