How many signed up. How many could do the job. How many got the clearance.
20 Comanches signed up to be code talkers, but only 17 went to training at Fort Benning, Ga., and only 14 hit Utah Beach at Normandy.
Others would as likely refuse the job.
Charles Chibitty, the last surviving World War II Comanche code talker, told Pentagon officials that teachers at the Indian school near Lawton, Okla., became angry with him for speaking the Comanche language in the early 1920s, then the Army wanted Comanches to use their language as a code during World War II.
Image Credit: Rudi Williams -- AFIS.
It ain’t easy for the devout to broadcast sacred languages, and allow outsiders to see it deciphered (old-school of thought today).
And there were other code talkers of other languages handling other theaters of operation, in both WW I and WW II.
"We got so we could send any message, word for word, letter for letter," Chibitty said. "The Navajos did the same thing in the Pacific during World War II and the Choctaw used their language during World War I. There were other code talkers from other tribes, but if they didn't train like the Comanche and Navajos, how could they send a message like we did? If they made a slight mistake, instead of saving lives, it could have cost a lot of lives.
Dan
Off Topic » in reply to There were other Amerindian languages. Why did they choose Comanche? n/t
Re: Possibly a numbers game . . .