He served as President of the Navajo Code Talkers Association and was a receipient of the Silver Congressional Metal of Honor. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps,Reconnaissance Company, 5th Mrine Division and participated in the capture of Iowa Him. He also served in the Occupational Forces in Japan after World War II.
Wife Patsy Billison of Window Rock
Parents Navajo Sam and Kinbah Hardy
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Watertown Daily Times (NY) - November 19, 2004
Deceased Name: Samuel Billison: NAVAJO WHO HAD HAND IN WWII CODE DIES
Samuel Billison, a Navajo who as a Marine during World War II helped invent a secret code based on the tribal language to confound the Japanese, died Wednesday of a heart problem, according to the Navajo Nation.
Billison didn't have a birth certificate, but he was born on a reservation in the mid-1920s. He was believed to be 78.
Billison and other Navajo Marines , called the Code Talkers, used the code and their native language to communicate troop movements and orders, developing a secret vocabulary that renamed military armaments and equipment using rough equivalents in Navajo.
Airplanes became birds, ships became fish and weapons were named after common things. The word "bomb," for example, was replaced by the Navajo word for "egg."
Billison joined the Marines after high school in 1943. He said he was sent to test as a code talker when he completed boot camp and the Marines realized he was fluent in Navajo and English.
The code talkers were not allowed to discuss their work when they returned home after the war.
The Defense Department first released information on the code talkers in 1968.
Billison was a longtime president of the Code Talker Association.
He served as President of the Navajo Code Talkers Association and was a receipient of the Silver Congressional Metal of Honor. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps,Reconnaissance Company, 5th Mrine Division and participated in the capture of Iowa Him. He also served in the Occupational Forces in Japan after World War II.
Wife Patsy Billison of Window Rock
Parents Navajo Sam and Kinbah Hardy
------------------------------------
Watertown Daily Times (NY) - November 19, 2004
Deceased Name: Samuel Billison: NAVAJO WHO HAD HAND IN WWII CODE DIES
Samuel Billison, a Navajo who as a Marine during World War II helped invent a secret code based on the tribal language to confound the Japanese, died Wednesday of a heart problem, according to the Navajo Nation.
Billison didn't have a birth certificate, but he was born on a reservation in the mid-1920s. He was believed to be 78.
Billison and other Navajo Marines , called the Code Talkers, used the code and their native language to communicate troop movements and orders, developing a secret vocabulary that renamed military armaments and equipment using rough equivalents in Navajo.
Airplanes became birds, ships became fish and weapons were named after common things. The word "bomb," for example, was replaced by the Navajo word for "egg."
Billison joined the Marines after high school in 1943. He said he was sent to test as a code talker when he completed boot camp and the Marines realized he was fluent in Navajo and English.
The code talkers were not allowed to discuss their work when they returned home after the war.
The Defense Department first released information on the code talkers in 1968.
Billison was a longtime president of the Code Talker Association.
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