Chester Nez grows up herding sheep on the Checkerboard territory with his extended family, living according to traditional Navajo practices.

Nez's father enrolls him in government boarding schools, where speaking Navajo is forbidden and violations are met with physical punishment.

Government workers force Nez's family to herd 700 of their sheep and goats into trenches, where the animals are burned alive.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and Nez enlists in the Marine Corps, determined to protect his homeland as a Navajo warrior.

Marine Corps recruiters select 29 Navajo men from hundreds of applicants for a classified code-development project.

The 29 Navajo recruits develop an unbreakable military code in a secured classroom, assigning Navajo words to English letters and military concepts.

The original code talkers graduate from their development phase, earn promotion to Private First Class, and prepare to deploy to the South Pacific.

Nez lands at Guadalcanal under enemy fire, wading through bloody water past floating bodies to reach the shore.

Lieutenant Hunt tests the Navajo code against the Shackle system, and the code talkers transmit a message in two and a half minutes.

After weeks of brutal fighting, the First Marine Division battles for Mount Austen before departing Guadalcanal for rest in Australia.

American forces invade Bougainville at Cape Torokina and secure three critical airfields after defeating a fierce Japanese counteroffensive.

Nez participates in the invasion of Peleliu, where Marines face extreme heat, coral reefs, and Japanese forces entrenched in fortified tunnel networks.

Nez returns home from the Pacific War struggling with PTSD, and his family arranges a traditional Enemy Way healing ceremony.

After 23 years of secrecy, the code talker program is declassified and Nez finally reveals his wartime role to his proud father.

Nez and the original code talkers receive Congressional Gold Medals at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda with President George W. Bush.

Chester Nez's story begins on the Checkerboard territory, where he herds sheep and lives by traditional Navajo customs before his father sends him to government boarding schools that forbid his language. The federal government's devastating livestock massacre strips his family of their wealth, but Nez perseveres through school until Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor draws him into the Marine Corps. He becomes one of 29 Navajo men who create an unbreakable military code, then deploy to the Pacific theater, where the code proves its value at Guadalcanal in a dramatic test against the outdated Shackle system. Nez fights through brutal campaigns at Bougainville and Peleliu before returning home haunted by trauma, finding healing through a traditional Enemy Way ceremony. Decades of government-imposed silence prevent him from sharing his true wartime role until the program is finally declassified. The recognition culminates in a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, honoring a lifetime of service built on a language once punished at school.

The major milestones of Chester Nez's life, from Navajo childhood to wartime hero.

Nez's grandmother narrates the Long Walk of 1864, describing the forced march of thousands of Navajo people 350 miles to Fort Sumner.

Nez's mother dies, and the family observes traditional Navajo mourning customs, referring to her as ádin rather than using the word dead.

Nez participates in his first traditional Navajo sweat bath ceremony at age five alongside his father, grandfather, and brother.

Nez and his brother Coolidge hunt and prepare a porcupine, demonstrating traditional food preparation and survival skills on the range.

Nez's family transfers him from the food-scarce Tohatchi school to Fort Defiance after observing his deteriorating physical condition.

Nez serves as an altar boy and joins the Catholic church choir at Fort Defiance, quietly noting parallels between Catholic and Navajo spiritual practices.

Philip Johnston, a missionary's son raised on the Navajo reservation, proposes using the Navajo language as the basis for a military code.

Navajo Platoon 382 achieves one of the highest marksmanship scores in Marine Corps history during basic training near San Diego.

The code talkers board the USS Lurline and complete intensive combat and night landing training on Grande Terre in New Caledonia.

Upon landing at Guadalcanal, Nez and Roy Begay dig foxholes near the tree line and test their TBX radio equipment.

American forces invade Guam and face a well-organized Banzai attack ordered by Lieutenant General Takashina against U.S. defensive positions.

Two American soldiers on Angaur mistake Nez and a fellow code talker for Japanese infiltrators and hold them at gunpoint.

Nez stays at a Naval Hospital in San Francisco and observes many fellow veterans completely incapacitated by the psychological effects of combat.

A civilian official at a federal building informs Nez that Native Americans cannot vote in New Mexico despite his military service.

Nez studies fine arts at the University of Kansas and develops a relationship with fellow Navajo student Ethel Pearl Catron.

This pool explores the cultural foundations and secondary events that shaped Nez's journey, beginning with the stories of Navajo history and traditions passed down by his family around the fire. His early life includes sacred ceremonies, survival skills learned on the Checkerboard, and the death of his mother, all framed by Navajo customs that would anchor him throughout his life. His time at boarding school introduces him to Catholicism, where he quietly identifies parallels with Navajo spirituality, while the origins of the code talker program are traced to Philip Johnston's inspired proposal. The code talkers' exceptional performance in basic training and their voyage to New Caledonia prepare them for deployment at Guadalcanal, where their very first night in flooded foxholes foreshadows the campaigns ahead. Later operations on Guam and the island of Angaur bring both tactical victories and a terrifying case of mistaken identity at the hands of their own comrades. Post-war life confronts Nez with renewed discrimination and the tentative beginnings of education and romance.

The supporting events and secondary milestones that shaped Chester Nez's world.

Nez's father gathers the family and describes the four sacred mountains bounding Navajo territory and the prayers required before traveling beyond them.

Nez helps his father and uncle build a traditional eight-sided hogan for his grandmother, completed with a medicine man's blessing ceremony.

Upon arriving at Fort Defiance, Nez receives a mandatory haircut, is assigned an English name, and has his traditional clothing confiscated.

Older students at Fort Defiance force younger boys to run across a room while pelting them with baseballs, as staff members ignore the abuse.

Nez's friend Robert Walley attempts to escape Fort Defiance and is punished by being forced to wear girls' clothing before his peers.

The Navajo Tribal Council passes a unanimous resolution pledging loyalty to the United States government before America enters the war.

Nez composes a letter to his family explaining his Marine Corps enlistment, as they believed he was still attending school in Tuba City.

The 29 Navajo recruits discover their mission is to build a military code from the very language they were once punished for speaking.

Expert U.S. military code breakers attempt to decrypt the Navajo code and fail, confirming it is unbreakable and ready for deployment.

At Peleliu, Japanese forces begin actively trying to crack the Navajo code, and the Marines respond by assigning bodyguards to protect the code talkers.

Having earned enough service points, Nez receives orders to return home rather than participate in the invasion of Iwo Jima.

Nez and Ethel marry in a Catholic church ceremony immediately followed by a traditional Navajo blessing conducted by a medicine man.

Nez creates a mural featuring stylized Ye'ii spirits in the VA hospital chapel, blending traditional Navajo beliefs with his civilian career.

Nez's eldest son Stanley dies in an automobile accident, leaving Nez unable to care about life for a long time afterward.

As the last surviving member of the original 29 code talkers, Nez attends a community celebration in Chichiltah honoring his legacy.

This pool traces the pivotal decisions and revelations that defined Chester Nez's dual identity as a Navajo man and American Marine, beginning with the cultural foundations laid by his family's storytelling and hogan-building traditions. His boarding school years bring a series of confrontations — forced cultural erasure, institutionalized bullying, and the punishment of students who dare resist — that repeatedly challenge his sense of self. The outbreak of war produces the memoir's central irony: the Navajo language that school authorities once punished him for speaking becomes the foundation of an unbreakable military code, a realization that shocks the recruits who lived through those beatings. As the code talkers prove their worth across the Pacific, enemy forces begin taking their transmissions seriously enough to demand countermeasures, prompting the Marines to assign bodyguards for the code talkers' protection. After surviving the war, Nez builds a civilian life that blends both worlds — a wedding combining Catholic vows and traditional Navajo blessings, a mural of ancient spirits painted inside a government hospital. Personal losses and a community celebration as the last surviving original code talker bring the journey full circle.

The key turning points and revelations that transformed Chester Nez's identity and mission.