Tuskegee Airmen & Navajo Code Talkers

Tuskegee Airmen During World War II, in a segregated military, the Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves among aviators. These African-American aviators flew as fighter escort and protection on bombing runs. Their record of over 200 combat missions without losing a single bomber shows why they were respected by the American military and feared by the enemy. Short History of the Tuskegee Airmen

Tuskegee Airmen 996 pilots and more than 15,000 ground personnel who served with the all-black units Earned over 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses for their achievements. The Tuskegee Airmen helped pave the way for the eventual integration of the U.S. armed forces under President Harry Truman in 1948. Airman Luther Smith

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Navajo Code: How it works The Navajo Code uses a combination of acronyms and word replacements. Plain text when encrypted could be spelled out in English and for each letter acronyms would be used. Most commonly used military terms and key subjects would be with a symbolic word. Navajo Code Talkers WWII

For example If the plain text is ‘Drop.’ It would be translated into English cipher text first: D -> Deer R -> Rabbit O -> Owl P -> Pant

Those words would now be translated into Navajo: Deer = BE Rabbit = GAH Owl = NE-AHS-JAH Pant = CLA-GI-AIH The resulting transmission: BE GAH NE-AHS-JAH CLA-GI-AIH

Replacing Entire Words Not all words are transmitted in such a way. Entire words are replaced with Navajo words that have a different literal meaning. Since it is a spoken language and it does not have words that directly correspond to modern warfare and military terms, words in the traditional language are used to represent modern terms and names.  For example: 'tank' would be referred to as a 'turtle‘ 'submarine' would be referred to as 'iron fish' 'bombs' (carried on aircraft) would be called 'eggs'. 

Encode a Message With a partner, write out a sentence using 8-12 words relating in some way to WWII. Note that there are no numbers in the dictionary, so they would have to be spelled out. Names of people would also have to be spelled out. Now encode your message, using one line per word and using the alphabet for any words not in the dictionary.