The Farmington Daily News wrote a beautiful Fourth of July story on Navajo Code Talkers Samuel Sandoval and Wilfred Billey.

Code talkers celebrate freedom in annual parade

By Elizabeth Piazza The Daily Times

FARMINGTON — Their native words cascade from their lips with gentleness and ease and for two World War II code talkers, Samuel Sandoval and Wilfred Billey, those words mean family, culture and tradition.

But the words took on new meanings when they were spoken during the war — secrecy, courage and a fight for freedom.

Little did they know the words that were passed down to them from their grandfather’s grandfathers would mean saving the lives of thousands and changing the course of a world war.

Sandoval and Billey, who have known each other since they attended Farmington Methodist Mission boarding school — now Navajo Preparatory School — will stand together tonight during Farmington’s Fourth of July Freedom Days parade to celebrate what their language helped to save.

How it started

Both joined the United States Marine Corps in 1943 because the military was looking for “Navajo boys ages 17 to 31 years of age to be fluent in Navajo and be fluent in English,” Sandoval said. They were to become more than 400 code talkers during World War II.

Sandoval, who walked into the recruiting center in Farmington, was on his way out the door when a recruiter stopped him, asking his nationality.

“I am a Navajo Indian — full-blooded,” he said to the man before sitting down.

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