The other twenty-four had died before the recognition arrived.

Some had died in the war itself.

Some had lived for decades after the war ended, had watched the recognition conversation begin in the 1970s and accelerate in the 1980s and 1990s, and had died before the legislation finally passed.

Their families accepted the medals that the original twenty-nine received.

The subsequent legislation in 2008 extended recognition to the several hundred subsequent Code Talkers who had served in the expanded program.

Many of them, too, had died before the legislation passed.