The following stories spotlight the service of Charlies “Charlie” Joyce Chibitty, WWII Comanche Code Talker, who was the brother of my dear friend, Woggie Watchetaker. On this 4th of July, I would like to pay tribute to Mr. Chibitty and the other many great warriors who served as code talkers and were a huge factor in achieving victory in the WWII conflict. I had the great honor and have fond memories of meeting Mr. Chibitty on several occasions.

This is ‘Charlie’s” great story.

CHARLES J. CHIBITTY served with the US Army from January 1, 1941 to July 3, 1945 earning the rank of T/5. He was a member of the Comanche Code Talkers. T/5 Chibitty was from the Mount Scott-Porter Hill area and a Golden Gloves boxer and fancy war dancer. He was the last surviving Code Talker when he passed away on July 20, 2005 at the age of eighty-three.

Charles Chibitty, the last surviving World War II Comanche code talker, donned his feathered Indian chief’s headdress and offered a prayer in the Pentagon Chapel for those killed in the terrorist attack on the building. Photo by Rudi Williams.

Arthur L. Money presents Charles Chibitty with a cased American flag that was flown over the capitol during ceremonies in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes. The 78- year-old Chibitty is the last surviving World War II Army Comanche “code talker.” Money is the assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications, and intelligence. Photo by Staff Sgt. Robert Broils, USA.

When Charles Chibitty, the last surviving World War II Comanche code talker, visited Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in 2002, the secretary presented him a memento of a small engraved box. Photo by Rudi Williams

http://www.defenselink.mil/utility/printitem.aspx?print=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=4290

DoD Honors Last Comanche World War II “Code Talker”

By Rudi Williams American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 1999 - Charles Chibitty, 78, was honored here Nov. 30 as the last surviving World War II Army Comanche “code talker” during an emotional ceremony in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes.The ceremony was punctuated by thundering drumbeats echoing through the Pentagon corridor and “vocables” of joy and sadness. “Vocables” are sounds replacing words so singers of various Native American tribes can sing together.

Chibitty received the Knowlton Award, created by the Military Intelligence Corps Association in 1995 to recognize significant contributions to military intelligence efforts. The award is named in honor of Revolutionary War Army Lt. Col. Thomas Knowlton.

Arthur L. Money, assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications, and intelligence, presented Chibitty the award in recognition of the role he and 16 other Comanche Indians played in cloaking military messages on the battlefields of Europe. The Comanches frustrated enemy code breakers by translating Army messages into their native language. The enemy never broke the code.

The code talkers are credited with saving countless American and allied lives, said Money, who also presented Chibitty an American flag that was flown over the capitol and a framed letter from Johnny Waugua, chairman of the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma.

“Volunteers like Mr. Chibitty were key to the U.S. and allied forces’success from Normandy to Berlin,” Money said. “History has proven that our ‘code talkers’ thoroughly confounded our enemy’s intelligence collection efforts, which on several occasions gave us the tactical advantage to ensure success while minimizing the risk to our troops.”

“It’s incredibly ironic that my agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, dedicated itself for the first half of this century to destroying the native languages that proved to be so useful to our armed forces during World War II,” said Kevin Gover, the Department of Interior’s assistant secretary of Indian affairs. “It’s a great irony that in just two or three generations of being in conflict with the United States, our warriors would go forward and play such a crucial role in the victory over this country’s enemies.” Gover assisted with the presentations.

Chibitty said the French government recognized Comanche code talkers in 1989 by presenting them that country’s second highest honor — naming each a Knight of the National Order of Merit. But, he said, being honored at the Pentagon was special because “you’re home folks.”

“I always wonder why it took so long to recognize us for what we did,” Chibitty said, holding back tears as he spoke of his deceased Comanche comrades. “They’re not here to enjoy what I’m getting after all these years. Yes, it’s been a long, long time.”

Using the code the Comanches created in 1941 during training at Fort Benning, Ga., Chibitty sent the first message on D-Day which, in English, translated to “Five miles to the right of the designated area and five miles inland the fighting is fierce and we need help.”

“We compiled a 100-word vocabulary of military terms during training,” said Chibitty, who joined the Army in January 1941 along with 20 other Comanches. “The Navajo did the same thing. The Navajos became code talkers about a year after the Comanches, but there were over a hundred of them because they had so much territory (in the Pacific Theater) to cover.”

Choctaw Indians were used as code talkers during World War I.

Since there was no Comanche word for “tank,” the code talkers used their word for “turtle.” “Machine gun” became “sewing machine,” Chibitty noted, “because of the noise the sewing machine made when my mother was sewing.” “Bomber” became “pregnant airplane.” “Hitler,” he said with a grin, was “posah-tai-vo,” or “crazy white man.”

Chibitty said two Comanches were assigned to each of the 4th Infantry Division’s three regiments. They sent coded messages from the front line to division headquarters, where other Comanches decoded the messages. He said some of the code talkers were wounded, but all survived the war.

“The only thing I regret is my fellow code talkers are not here,” Chibitty said. “But I have a feeling those boys are here somewhere listening and looking down.”

When his last fellow code talker died in September 1998, Chibitty said, “All those other boys up there were welcoming him home. They were hugging and kissing him and, while they were doing that, they said, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve still got one more down there. When Charles gets up here, we’re going to welcome him just like we welcoming you.”"

“You had this way of speaking that nobody could translate. The way you used your language was of such great advantage to your country,” Les Brownlee, the undersecretary of the Army, told Charles Chibitty, the last surviving World War II Comanche code talker during a visit to his Pentagon office. Photo by Rudi Williams.

Last WWII Comache Code Talker Visist Pentagon, Arlington Cemetery

By Rudi Williams American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8, 2002 – After meeting with the defense secretary and other top Pentagon officials on Nov. 5, Charles Chibitty, the last surviving World War II Comanche code talker, donned his feathered Indian chief’s headdress and offered a prayer in the Pentagon Chapel for those killed in the terrorist attack on the building.

The aging code talker then placed a wreath and offered an Indian prayer at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery. This marks the third time the 81-year old war veteran was honored at the Pentagon for his service to the nation. His visits in 1992 and 1999 were also in November during National American Indian Heritage Month.

While meeting at the Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Undersecretary of the Army Les Brownlee and Raymond F. DuBois Jr., deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, Chibitty recounted his wartime experiences when his unit landed on the Normandy shores on “the first or second day after D-Day.” After his unit hit Utah Beach, his first radio message was sent to another codetalker on an incoming boat. Translated into English, it said: “Five miles to the right of the designated area and five miles inland, the fighting is fierce and we need help.”

“We were trying to let them know where we were so they wouldn’t lob no shells on us,” he explained with a chuckle. “I was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division. We talked Indian and sent messages when need be. It was quicker to use telephones and radios to send messages because Morse code had to be decoded and the Germans could decode them. We used telephones and radios to talk Indian then wrote it in English and gave it to the commanding officer.”

Chibitty said two Comanches were assigned to each of the 4th Infantry Division’s three regiments. They sent coded messages from the front line to division headquarters, where other Comanches decoded the messages.

He said 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. “None of us was killed, but two were wounded pretty badly; one was my cousin,” Chibitty noted.

Brownlee asked him if he was hit and Chibitty said, “Heck, no. I was like a prairie dog. As soon as I heard a whistle, I’d dive in that hole. I was little then. I weighed 126 pounds and it didn’t take long for me to dig my hole. My buddy weighed 240 pounds and some of them were more than six feet tall and they had to dig a long trench.”

Speaking in the Comanche language, Chibitty gave Brownlee another example of a message code talkers sent to other units, then translated it for him: “A turtle is coming down the hedgerow. Get that stovepipe and shoot him.”

“A turtle was a tank and a stovepipe was a bazooka,” he explained. “We couldn’t say tank or bazooka in Comanche, so we had to substitute something else. A turtle has a hard shell, so it was a tank.”

Since there was no Comanche word for machine gun it became “sewing machine,” Chibitty noted, “because of the noise the sewing machine made when my mother was sewing.” Hitler, he said, was “posah-tai-vo,” or “crazy white man.”

There are no other words in his language to describe a bomber aircraft, so they said, “Daddy and I went fishing and we cut that catfish open and he’s full of eggs. Well, that bomber was up there just like this catfish, it’s full of eggs, too, so we called it a pregnant airplane.”

“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.”

In 1989, the French government honored the Comanche code talkers, including Chibitty , by presenting them the “Chevalier of the National Order of Merit.” Chibitty has also received a special proclamation from the governor of Oklahoma. In 2001, Congress passed legislation authorizing the presentation of gold medals to Native Americans who served as code talkers during foreign conflicts.

“I felt I was doing something that the military wanted us to do and we did to the best of our ability, not only to save lives, but to confuse the enemy by talking in the Comanche language,” he said. “We felt we were doing something that could help win the war.”

Brownlee asked him if the Comanche language is written and Chibitty said, “There’s a book, but you’ve got to be awfully damn smart to read it. It’s not like alphabets, you have to learn the phonetics to pronounce the words.” The aging code talker then sang Silent Night in the Comanche language.

Chibitty said when he attended Indian school in the 1920s, teachers became angry with him because he was speaking the Comanche language. “When we got caught talking Indian, we got punished,” he noted. “I told my cousin that they’re trying to make little white boys out of us,” he said.

After joining the Army years later, he told his cousin, “They tried to make us quit talking Indian in school, now they want us to talk Indian.”

The retired glazier visits schools to tell the youngsters about what code talkers did and how they did it. He said officials at Comanche headquarters near Lawton, Okla., are trying to preserve the language by teaching it to children.

“The service you and your buddies provided turned out to be invaluable,” Brownlee told the aging veteran. “You had this way of speaking that nobody could translate. The way you used your language was of such great advantage to your country.”

Before returning home to Tulsa, Okla., Chibitty spent some time with researchers at the U.S. Army Center for Military History for oral history sessions. The Army wants to preserve the history of the Comanche code talkers and Chibitty is the last one to tell the story from first-hand experience.

http://www.defenselink.mil/utility/printitem.aspx?print=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=16523

World War II Comanche Code Talker Laid to Rest - July 29, 2005

By Rudi Williams American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2005 – When Charles “Charlie” J. Chibitty, the last World War II Comanche code talker, was buried July 26, a friend wrote in the eulogy, “Charlie’s life has no foreshadowing or ending. As long as wind blows, his life and legacy will continue to twist and turn along courses only wild horses know.”

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. Chibitty died July 20 in Tulsa, Okla. He was 83. He was invited to the Pentagon three times — in 1992, 1999 and 2002 — in honor of his service to the nation as a World War II code talker. He, along with 16 other Comanche Indians, was part of an Army company of code talkers who befuddled the Germans during the invasion of the beaches of Normandy, France.

During his 2002 Pentagon visit, Chibitty said his unit hit Utah Beach in Normandy “the first or second day after D-Day.” His first radio message was sent to another code talker on an incoming boat. Translated into English, it said: “Five miles to the right of the designated area and five miles inland, the fighting is fierce and we need help.”

“We were trying to let them know where we were so they wouldn’t lob no shells on us,” he explained with a chuckle. “I was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division. We talked Indian and sent messages when need be. It was quicker to use telephones and radios to send messages, because Morse code had to be decoded and the Germans could decode them. We used telephones and radios to talk Indian, then wrote it in English and gave it to the commanding officer.”

The Comanche Indians frustrated enemy code breakers by translating Army messages into their native language. The enemy never broke the code.

Chibitty enlisted in the Army in January 1941. He earned the World War II Victory Medal, European Theater of Operations Victory Medal with five bronze stars, Europe-African Middle East Campaign Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. In 1989, the French government honored the Comanche code talkers by presenting them the Chavalier of the National Order of Merit.

He was presented the Knowlton Award, created by the Military Intelligence Association, in 1995 to recognize significant contributions to military efforts. In April 2003, Chibitty attended the dedication ceremony for a monument to Choctaw and Comanche code talkers of World War I and World War II at Camp Beuregard in Pineville, La., where he trained during World War II. When he visited the Pentagon in 1992, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney presented him a certificate of appreciation for his service to the country. Chibitty also received a special proclamation from the governor of Oklahoma, who honored him for his contributions to that state and the nation.

When Chibitty visited the Pentagon in November 2002, he donned his feathered Indian chief’s headgear and offered a prayer in the Pentagon Chapel for those killed in the terrorist attack on the building. The aging World War II code talker then went to nearby Arlington National Cemetery and placed a wreath and offered an Indian prayer at the Tomb of the Unknowns. His 2002 visit included a meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Before returning home to Tulsa, Chibitty spent some time with researchers at the U.S. Army Center for Military History for oral history sessions.

“Laying the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns really meant a lot to him,” Chibitty’s adopted daughter, Carrie V. Wilson of Fayetteville, Ariz., said during a telephone interview.

“When he talked about his code talking days, he always said he wished that all the other code talkers could have gotten the awards, attention and recognition that he did,” said Wilson, a cultural resource consultant. “But by the time they really recognized the Comanche code talkers, most of them were dead.”

“He never thought about any of the awards without thinking about all the others who had gone before him,” Wilson noted. Pointing out that Chibitty was a traditional Comanche speaker, Wilson said his death is a huge loss to the Comanche community. “He tried to teach Comanche to whomever showed an interest in it,” she noted.

“He was a big powwow Indian, and he took me into his family more than 35 years ago,” said Wilson, a Quapaw Indian, who is a former Miss Indian Oklahoma and a Quapaw tribal princess. “He adopted me, and put his daughter’s clothes on me, and took me out to a big powwow in Tulsa. He told everybody that he gave me permission to wear Comanche clothes because he’d taken me into his family as his daughter.”

Wilson said she has many fond memories of Chibitty, including going to powwow dances with him and his brother. Both of them were nationally known for their Indian championship dancing. “When he and his brother and other Comanches came out onto the dance floor, they looked like royalty,” she said. “They were always recognized in the Indian community as championship dancers.

“We’d laugh and tease, and he was always fun to be around,” Wilson said. “But an important thing is that he was always there for anyone who needed help, whether they had problems with drinking or just needed someone to talk to. He was always available to listen to them and give advice, or be a friend.

“Every night before he went to bed, he’d sit on the edge of his bed and pray,” she noted. “He was a very sincere person. He knew what war was about and how precious life is. And, he believed that education is one of the most important things.”

Chibitty’s son, a promising attorney, was killed in a car accident in 1982, and his daughter died about 10 years later, Wilson said. “After that, his wife died,” she noted. “So my role as a daughter became more real. Before his wife died, she told me to take care of him - I tried.”

In addition to Wilson, Chibitty is survived by two grandsons, Chebon Chibitty and Acey Chibitty, and another adopted daughter, Lacey Chibitty, who reside in Tulsa. He also leaves behind a number of nieces and nephews.

Musical tributes included the Kricket Rhoads Connywerdy, Comanche Sovo drum, Comanche hymns at the graveside. Chibitty was given full military honors, including a 21-gun salute by the Fort Sill Honor Team.

“They sang the Comanche code talkers’ song, which is a beautiful song, as they were putting him into the ground,” Wilson said. The Comanche Indian Veterans Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 577, American Legion Post 1, Masonic Rights and Millennium Lodge 543 attended his funeral.

Above: Charles Chibitty offers an Indian prayer at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery during a Nov. 5, 2002, visit to the site. Photo by Rudi Williams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Chibitty

Charles Chibitty - November 20, 1921– July 20, 2005 was a Comanche code talker who used his native language to relay messages for the Allies during World War II. Chibitty, and 15 other Comanches had been recruited by the U.S. military for this purpose since Comanche was a language that was entirely unknown to the Germans, who were unable to decipher it. The Navajos performed a similar duty in the Pacific War.

Chibitty was born on November 20, 1921, in a tent 16 miles west of Lawton, Oklahoma. He attended high school at the Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941. He served in the Army’s Fourth Signal Company in the 4th Infantry Division. He earned the World War II Victory Medal, the European Theater of Operations Victory Medal with five bronze stars, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

In 1989, Chibitty and the other two surviving code talkers - Roderick Red Elk and Forrest Kassanavoid - were presented with the Chevalier of the Ordre National du Mérite by the French government. Chibitty’s work — and that of the other Comanches who served in Europe — was not recognized by the U.S. government until 1999, when he received the Knowlton Award from The Pentagon, which recognizes outstanding intelligence work. By the time this recognition came around, Chibitty was the only surviving Comanche code talker.

In interviews with the media he would name all of his Comanche colleagues, so that they would not be forgotten. They were Larry Saupitty, Willie Yackeschi, Morris Sunrise, Perry Noyobad, Haddon Codynah, Robert Holder, Clifford Ototivo, Forrest Kassanavoid, Roderick Red Elk, Simmons Parker, Melvin Permansu, Ellington Mihecoby and Elgin Red Elk.

He died on July 20, 2005 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

http://www.vajoe.com/blog/2007/08/13/history-is-our-stories-army-code-talkers/

http://www.scottishrite.org/web/journal-files/Issues/sep-oct05/cisep-oct.htm

Charles Chibitty was presented the Knowlton Award, created by the Military Intelligence Association, in 1995 to recognize significant contributions to military efforts. In April 2003, Chibitty attended the dedication ceremony for a monument to Choctaw and Comanche code talkers of World War I and World War II at Camp Beauregard in Pineville, La., where he trained during World War II. When he visited the Pentagon in 1992, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney presented him a certificate of appreciation for his service to the country. Chibitty also received a special proclamation from the governor of Oklahoma, who honored him for his contributions to that state and the nation.

Bro. Chibitty was Raised a Master Mason on October 26, 1951, in Petroleum Lodge No. 474 in Tulsa, which merged with Millennium Lodge No. 543. He joined the Guthrie Scottish Rite in 1954, and affiliated with the Valley of Tulsa in 1974. Bro. Chibitty received his 50-year membership award from the Valley of Tulsa in 2004. He is survived by two adopted daughters, Carrie V. Wilson and Lacey Chibitty, two grandsons, Chebon Chibitty and Acey Chibitty, and a number of nieces and nephews.

AFRTS Video Reports: Native American ‘Code Talker’ honored at the Pentagon

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43012

Veteran Recalls Navajo Code Talkers’ War in the Pacific

By Cpl. Cullen James, USA Special to American Forces Press Service

FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz., Dec. 6, 1999 – America’s World War II island-hopping campaign in the Pacific was about to start in 1942, and the U.S. military still didn’t have something it desperately needed — a communications code the Japanese couldn’t break.

Then, Philip Johnston had a revolutionary idea: Use the native language of the Navajo Indians. Johnston, the son of a missionary to the Navajos, was one of the few outsiders who could speak the tribe’s tongue fluently. The language is unique to the Navajos and had no written form at that time, so a person who didn’t know the oral vocabulary was helpless.

Johnston tried several times to convince the Navy his idea had merit, but failed. “It was a call to then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt that finally convinced the Navy to give his idea a shot,” said John Goodluck Sr., a Marine Corps Navajo code talker during the war.

For the test, he said, the military set radios 300-400 yards apart and sent coded messages using both Navajo code talkers and regular Morse code machines. “The code talkers deciphered the message in under a minute, the machine took an hour,” Goodluck said. After military approval, the Navajo council had to decide whether to support the idea.

“Everyone on the council was for it except for one. They slept on it for a night and decided to do it — they said it was good and important to support it,” he said. Goodluck and others went to Camp Pendleton, Calif., for Marine Corps basic training and code- talking school and then headed to the Pacific. Eventually, 379 code talkers would serve.

“Some say there were 400, but many failed,” Goodluck said. “You had to understand both Navajo and English.”

Code talkers’ messages were strings of seemingly unrelated Navajo words. They would translate each word into English, and then decipher the message by using only the first letter of each English word. For example, several Navajo words could be used to represent the letter “a” — “wol-la-chee” (ant), “be-la-sana” (apple) and “tse-nill” (ax). The code was unbreakable so long as an eavesdropper didn’t know the oral vocabulary.

While the Navajos used more than one word to represent letters, about 450 common military terms had no equivalent and were assigned code words. For example, “division” was “ashih-hi” (salt); “America” was “Ne-he-mah” (Our mother); “fighter plane” was “da-he-tih-hi” (hummingbird); “submarine” became “besh-lo” (iron fish); and “tank destroyer” was “chay-da-gahi-nail-tsaidi” (tortoise killer).

Just by speaking their language, the Navajos could easily transmit information on tactics and troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield communications over telephones and radios. “We were always on the radio. We would see a ship or airplane and tell them what we saw,” Goodluck said.

Goodluck said he served in the 3rd Marine Division from March 1943 to December 1945 and participated in the invasions of Guadalcanal and Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, Guam and Iwo Jima.

After the war, Goodluck returned to Arizona and worked for the U.S. Public Health Service as a truck driver, ambulance driver and translator for English-speaking physicians on the reservations. “They didn’t have doctors or clinics on the reservations when I first started. The nurses had to carry these huge bags and would give the shots to people in the areas we visited,” he recalled.

The Department of Defense officially and openly honored its Native American code talkers in 1992. The services enlisted code talkers from many tribes during the war. While their purpose was a kind of open secret then, their contributions were still largely unknown to the public. Now, however, the Navajo code talker exhibit is a regular stop on the Pentagon tour.

Cpl. Cullen James is a staff writer for the Scout newspaper at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

http://marine73110.tripod.com/id20.html

Funeral Services for Charles “Charlie” Chibitty

As representatives of the YL-37 Group, Gerald and I joined the many hundreds to the entry of the Chapel as flute music played to sign the guest book outside. We made our way inside with standing room only for the Memorial services for a good father, brother, patriot and the last Comanche Code Talker (Saw you woo kee) Charlie Chibitty. Standing next to Lisa Pahsetopah the ministers wife we reminisced a few moments on Charlie and his good sense of humor who was always ready for a joke. I told her of his blessing of YL-37 and meeting the Marines of Squadron HMM-362 the Ugly Angels and she told me of him being a mentor for her husband and there time in the TV series Walker Texas Ranger and the many powwows’ they were together. The room fell silent as Mike Pahsetopah began by thanking all who came to show their respect for such a hero. Many in Native American regalia from fancy beadwork to the Comanche princess hi full regalia they came. Comanche members of the congregation sang two tribal hymns followed by two Kiowa hymns. An announcement was made that if there were any other tribes present they were welcome to sing also. A creek song was sung. A drum was brought in and an old friend who had known Charlie since 1940 led the drum group as they sang songs that Charlie had asked to be sung many times. Everyone stood as a True Memorial Song began followed by a Chief Song and I’ll See You Again. Two tribal members brought a Sovo drum and gourd rattle forward and two songs were sung. Two medicine men in war bonnets made their way up the isle with cedar smoke to purify and cleanse the coffin and the immediate family starting with his adopted granddaughter Lacey and grandsons. A song written for Comanche Code talkers was sung by Kricket Rhoads at Lacey’s request as this song was sung many times by the two girls for Charlie. Mike gave the eulogy stating the Charlie was born N. of Lawton and had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. He went to Chilocco Indian School and enjoyed Boxing and continued to box after enlisting in the Army in 1941. Around the drum another song was sung entitled Dressed and looking our Best Fancy dancers were asked to join in. About ten dancers answered his call and came forward to dance. What a great site to see, as they were some of the best. Charlie was also a fancy dancer who preformed many times in this category at powwows. A message by Mike continued as he once again told of Charlie being his mentor who taught him many things one being the correct protocol in entering the powwow arena. He quoted many scripture verses starting with John 11 Verse 24. John 14 Verse 1-6 He said that Charlie belonged to the Native American Church. A prayer was said and Mike encouraged the congregation to pray for the family and practice 2^nd Timothy 4-7. Paula Chibitty came forward and talked about her grandfathers all being in the service, as was she from 1996-2000. She said that she knew he was in a better place and was at peace. She was happy to carry such a well-respected name. Wallace Coffee, Chairman of the Comanche tribe introduced all the Chibitty family which were many in number and told about them coming from the line of Ten Bears. He stated that of the 17 Comanche code talkers 3 were discharged and never served. He talked about a Monument in Lawton erected to honor the Comanche Code talkers. A frequent saying of Charlie’s was” He wished all who served as Comanche Code Talkers could be with him” as honors were later bestowed upon him. Wallace thanked all non Indian Veterans who were in attendance. Jesse Burns -Scottish rite did the honors, as Charlie was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Tulsa. The Comanche singers sang many songs as the congregation viewed the body. Tune passed and the Chapel remained full as many came from outside. As we made our way single file up the isle the voices of the singers filled our hearts with sadness as the native songs could be heard with an occasional baby cry that seemed to echo our creators plan for us, WE go on. Many, many braved the near 100 degree weather to follow the hearse while others walked to the Veteran Field of Honor as he was laid to rest with a Comanche color guard, 21 gun salute, taps and War Mothers song along with Code Talker songs on the drum accompanied by singers. 4 Hours passed quickly as we made our way to go as far as we could and say goodbye with the last handshake. -A fistful of dirt taken from the grave to sprinkle on his casket.- Wado - Thank You Charlie, We will never forget you and you will be forever in our memories a reminder of the day you made your way to Inola to bless YL-37 the old girl who has a soul and meet other brave men the Marines of HMM-362 the Ugly Angels. Oh

- Lillian Hail

http://osdir.com/ml/science.cryptography.bletchley-park/2005-07/msg00031.html

OBITUARY - Charles Chibitty

THE TIMES
July 28, 2005

OBITUARY - Charles Chibitty
November 20, 1921 - July 20, 2005

Comanche code-talker whose messages in his native
tongue baffled German attempts to read American
signals on D-Day.

WHEN the US Army sought a code for its forces in
the North West Europe theatre that the Germans
would be unable to decipher, it turned to a group
of Comanches of whom Charles Chibitty was the last
survivor. Like the much larger numbers of Navajos,
who performed a similar function for US forces in
the Pacific theatre, Chibitty and his select group
of colleagues provided a secure medium for trans-
mitting messages between HQs and units which
totally baffled the enemy.

One of a number of Uto-Aztecan languages scattered
across the western United States and northern
Mexico, the Comanche tongue was ideal as a secret
code. By the outbreak of war, after decades
of proscription by the US authorities, the
language was spoken by very few people - today only
800 speak it - and it had no written alphabet.
- One was not adopted until 1994.

From the moment the Americans landed on Utah and
Omaha beaches German specialists monitoring signal
traffic were mystified by the sounds they heard
coming over their receivers, and remained so during
the rest of the campaign, as they vainly tried to
crack the American  “code”. They were never to know,
for example, that the sound which they heard as
“posah tai vo”  was the Comanche for â”crazy white
man”, and referred to their supreme warlord,
Adolf Hitler.

Charles Chibitty was born in 1921 near Medicine
Park, Oklahoma.  From the late 1800s onwards there
had been discrimination against native American
languages and, like many Comanche children before
him, he was educated in a boarding school, Haskell
Indian School,in Lawrence, Kansas. There he was
required to speak only English, and like his
schoolmates he was punished if he did otherwise.

This atmosphere changed when war came. The use
of native American languages as codes in wartime
was not new. In the First World War Choctaw had
been used as a means of rendering messages
unreadable by the enemy, and had played an
important role in the Meuse-Argonne battle of
September-October 1918.

In January 1941, before the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbour had led to America’s direct
involvement in the conflict, Chibitty was
one of 20 Comanches from Oklahoma who enlisted
and were selected for special communications
duty in the European theatre.

They were trained at Fort Benning, Georgia,
where they compiled a vocabulary of military
terms. Since the Choctaw language was not rich
in the vocabulary of modern warfare, Chibitty
and his comrades had to improvise. Thus, since
Comanche had no word for “tank”, the code-
talkers, as they were known, substituted the
word “turtle”. For “Âmachinegun” they decided
on “sewing machine”, while”bomber”
became  “pregnant aeroplane”.

As Allied forces built up in the vast armed
camp England had become by early 1944,
Chibitty and his colleagues crossed the Atlantic
and prepared to go ashore on the Normandy beaches
on D-Day. For the assault, Chibitty was one of
the two Comanches who were attached to each of
the regiments of the 4th Infantry Division, which
was commanded by General Joseph “Lightning Joe”
Collins.

This landed on Utah Beach on the right flank of
the Allied landings, and Chibitty sent the first
Commanche message on D-Day which, in English,
read: â”Five miles to the right of the designated
area and five miles inland the fighting is fierce,
and we need help.”…/snip/

…Charles Chibitty, Comanche code talker, was
born on November 20, 1921.  

He died on July 20, 2005, aged 83.

http://www.nmai.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter7.html

Volunteers like Mr. Chibitty were key to the U.S. and allied forces’ success from Normandy to Berlin —Arthur L. Money, Assistant Secretary of Defense - The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, 1999

Comanche Code Talker Charles Chibitty attending the dedication of the Comanche Nation Memorial to the Comanche Code Talkers in Lawton, OK.

Eventually, Charles Chibitty and the other Comanche Code Talkers were recognized around the world for their contributions. Charles was honored at the Pentagon on three occasions. He was awarded special recognition from the Secretary of Defense and the Governor of Oklahoma. He received the Knowlton Award, a special honor from the Military Intelligence Association. He was invited to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery. He was invited to speak at countless gatherings from small community centers to large national events. When he spoke, he always mentioned his fellow Comanche Code Talkers. He wished that they had received the same awards and recognition that he did, but by the time the recognition for Comanche Code Talkers began, many of them had already passed away. Charles was the last surviving Comanche code talker at the time of his death in 2005. Geoffrey Wright wrote this about him: “Charlie’s life has no foreshadowing or ending. As long as wind blows, his life and legacy will continue to twist and turn along courses only wild horses know.” - “YL-37 Flies Again: Charles Joyce Chibitty,” in YL-37 Group Foundation Inc., 2005

[Charles sings] That’s the Comanche “Code Talker Song.” And then when we was all living when they sang it, we would always get together and dance and boy, they all come out. Now, I’m the only one living.—Charles Chibitty, Comanche Code Talker, National Museum of the American Indian interview, 2004

BOOK:

http://books.google.com/books?id=PwVFeIF6K-IC&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=Charles+J+Chibitty&source=web&ots=hx3iqfhcit&sig=UlE4hxfw4hMSNgp1xDP4ldhmt6s&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result

]]> http://bymyart.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/last-world-war-ii-comanche-code-talker-charles-charlie-j-chibitty/feed/ buymyart http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/newsstoryPhoto/2002-11/scr_200211081b_hr.jpg http://www.defenselink.mil/images/video.gif chibitty.jpg cc.jpg http://bymyart.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/god-and-the-spider/ http://bymyart.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/god-and-the-spider/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:13:21 +0000 bymyart http://bymyart.wordpress.com/?p=379

During World War II, a US marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades.

Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and he would be killed.

As he waited, he prayed, “Lord, if it be your will, please protect me. Whatever your will though, I love you and trust you. Amen.”

After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close. He thought, “Well, I guess the Lord isn’t going to help me out of this one.” Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave.

As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while, the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the cave.

“Hah, he thought. “What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humor.”

As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another. As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while.

“Lord, forgive me,” prayed the young man. “I had forgotten that in you a spider’s web is stronger than a brick wall.”

We all face times of great trouble. When we do, it is so easy to forget what God can work in our lives, sometimes in the most surprising ways. And remember with God, a mere spider’s web can become a brick wall of protection.

http://home.att.net/~mcp3_2000/_classics/009/god_spider.htm

www.csmonitor.com

Native American Code talkers from WWII (image from link below)

si.unm.edu/bern_2003/ janie/jan_tl/janie_tl.htm

They continue to join the military in larger numbers than almost any other minority group – many out of a sense of tribal duty.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0820/p20s01-usmi.html?s=hns

from the August 20, 2007 edition

Fort Defiance, Ariz. - In a grassy clearing amid the dusty hills here, Donovan Nez bends over a bubbling spring. Mr. Nez, 26, is a Navajo Indian and a former marine. Though he wears his dark hair cropped in a military cut, he looks very much the civilian on this Sunday afternoon. He balances on a fallen log, turning every so often to flash a boyish smile at his younger cousins who cluster behind him on the bank.

“When you drink this water,” says Nez, “it seeps into every crevice of your body. It rejuvenates you.”

Nez turns back to the water at the site known as Swiffle Spring, located on the Navajo Indian reservation just below the Chuksa mountains here, and bows his head. He whispers a prayer in Navajo, then English.

“Mother Earth, ease our physical and mental burdens. Thank you for all you have given us. For safety and strength. For this sacred water.” He places his hands in the spring.

When Nez thanks Mother Earth for protection, he often has something specific in mind – namely Iraq, where he served two tours with the US Marines.

Nez believes his faith and traditions helped bring him back safely from the war. More than that, they help explain why he and other native Americans enlist in the military in such large numbers – even though many resent the way the US government has treated their people over the centuries.

They feel an unusual obligation to protect the tribal communities they belong to and, more specifically, the land they’ve inhabited for generations. The result is that native Americans tend to join the service at higher per capita rates than almost any other minority group.

According to the Pentagon, they represent less than 1 percent of the population, but makeup about 1.6 percent of the armed forces. In some tribal communities, 1 out of every 200 adults have served in the military. Currently, nearly 20,000 native American and Alaskan native people are in uniform.

• • •

One reason for the high participation rates, to be sure, are the career and economic benefits. “The military is seen as an opportunity,” says Mark St. Pierre, an historian who has lived on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota for 35 years. His book, “Of Uncommon Birth: Dakota sons in Vietnam,” follows native Americans who fought in Southeast Asia. He estimates that nearly 50 percent of males on the reservation have served in the military. “People on this reservation realize they will get VA benefits,” he says, “that they might go to college.”

The same is true of the Navajo reservation, which sprawls across 27,000 square miles of northern Arizona and extends into Utah and New Mexico. Some 43 percent of the reservation’s 180,000 residents live below the poverty line. Unemployment stands at 42 percent. Nearly 32 percent of homes lack full plumbing. Nez grew up in a cramped trailer. As the oldest of four children, he never had a bed, but slept on the floor or couch.

Yet the cultural motivations for military service run deep among native Americans, too – and set them apart from many other minority groups. A sense of tribal duty is often a primary motivator.

“In a tribal society, social status and approval are important,” says Mr. St. Pierre. “If a man’s not a veteran, he’s going to be less. It’s ingrained in the culture.”

He and others talk about the “warrior culture” that is so pervasive among native Americans. But this ethos isn’t about blind violence. St. Pierre notes that native American tribes have a history of “turf wars” – those fought over land, hunting rights, trade routes, and water access. “For the most part,” he says, “American Indians did not fight wars of annihilation.”

Nez says the mentality of fighting is “in our blood. It’s natural to fight for the cause you believe in.” But when he speaks about manliness and strength, he also lists sacrifice and unselfishness as fundamental warrior traits.

Many native Americans find reservation life helps them adjust to the rigors of the military. David Nez, Donovan’s uncle, enlisted in the Army in 1974 at the age of 19. He served six years of active duty, and later fought in the Gulf War with the Army Reserve. David Nez says he enlisted for the economic benefits but that his upbringing made military service a “natural choice.”

“Growing up, we’d ride horses bareback – just like that.” Nez is standing outside a cluster of trailer homes and points to a group of young men riding our direction. The yard is dusty and stretches into a vast landscape of desert brush. “I could run for a long ways,” he says. “I could climb rocks and trees, jump from heights. I was already in physical shape. I already knew hunger and thirst. When I got to basic training and faced all that hardship, I was already up to it.”

It’s evident that patriotism runs deep here on the Navajo reservation. Many houses fly American flags, and the national anthem is sung at most community events. But native Americans often interpret these symbols differently from the rest of society.

“Our patriotism is first to the family and the clan,” says Ed Piestewa, a Hopi, during a veterans-appreciation ceremony on the Navajo reservation. As we speak, a color guard marches out into the searing sun. They’re wearing military attire along with feathered head dresses and traditional jewelry. Moments later, the color guard sings The Star-Spangled Banner – in Navajo.

Mr. Piestewa’s niece, Lori Ann Piestewa, was the first female soldier to die fighting in Iraq. Her convoy was hit by a bomb in 2003 in Nasiriyah. (Pfc. Piestewa’s best friend Jessica Lynch was injured in the same attack). She was a single mom with two small children and, according to her uncle, hoped military benefits would help support her family. Her decision to serve carried cultural significance as well.

“She was fulfilling a traditional right of passage,” says Piestewa. Then he adds, “Natives were enlisting before we were recognized as US citizens. They enlist to protect the family.”

Similarly, when Mary Cohoe looks at the flag, she doesn’t think about Congress, the president, or democratic ideals. To her, Old Glory is a symbol of the US military and the physical sacrifices she and her people have made for their land. Ms. Cohoe served in Vietnam with the Red Cross. The US Army issued her a military ID while she was in the country, and she still considers herself a Vietnam veteran. “It’s our dirt,” she says. “That’s where we came from. The flag is the loyalty that we have, as Navajo, to Mother Earth.”

• • •

As Ms. Cohoe and other veterans explain, the military is one way for native Americans to gain power in a country that they believe continues to ignore and mistreat them. “We are using the system to protect our culture – to survive,” she says.

Donovan Nez feels he has achieved a balance between his two identities: Indian and American. Though he lives off the reservation in Phoenix, he edits independent films about young Navajo adults reconnecting with their native roots. He feels integrated into American culture but not assimilated. Still, he grapples with his military service. “That’s an ongoing question for me,” he says. “How can you be a vet after the US treated your people so bad?”

At Swiffle Spring, Nez finishes his prayer to Mother Earth. He fills empty milk cartons and soda bottles with water to bring to his parents. Then he hands a brimming pitcher to his sister, who pours the cold water over his cupped hands, head, and neck – an impromptu baptism.

“The reason I’m OK with being a US citizen is that Mother Earth is the same wherever you are,” he says. “For me to have the whole US as my home” – Nez pauses mid sentence, as though in awe – “I’m so lucky to be living on my land.”

www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2008 The Christian Science Monitor

Ellison Product Harris Becomes Highest Paid D-Lineman In NFL

Posted: 4:06 PM Jun 20, 2008
 Last Updated: 8:16 PM Jun 20, 2008
 Reporter: Chicago Bears

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Less than 24 hours after signing a lucrative four-year contract extension worth $40 million that a league source confirmed guarantees him $18 million overall and is worth $27 million the first three years, Tommie Harris was excited and relieved Friday when he discussed his new deal with the media.

“It’s just good that now I can finally go out there and play football,” he said during a press conference at Halas Hall. “I don’t have to worry about all the business and all the other stuff.”

Defensive tackle Tommie Harris registered a career-high eight sacks last season.
Harris, a three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle, was set to enter the final season of the five-year deal he inked as a first-round draft pick in 2004. But the 25-year-old is now signed through 2012.

“I’m so thankful that I am a Bear and I would love to finish my career here also after this next term,” Harris said. “Hopefully we can come back here, smile and talk about it all over again. I’m going to enjoy this four-year extension and I look forward to putting on a great display.”

Harris participated in the Bears’ offseason program even while his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, negotiated the extension with general manager Jerry Angelo and contract specialist Cliff Stein.

“I think we handled this whole situation very classy,” Harris said. “We didn’t try to go out there and talk about one another or dispute different things. I feel like we did keep it all in house. Now we finally have resolved the whole situation and we’re moving forward. I’m just excited about being a Bear and looking forward to this upcoming season.”

In keeping with the Bears’ philosophy to reward their own players, Harris is the eighth veteran the team has re-signed this offseason. He follows linebacker Lance Briggs, defensive end Alex Brown, tight end Desmond Clark, wide receiver Rashied Davis, kicker Robbie Gould and quarterbacks Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton.

After missing the 2006 playoffs—including Super Bowl XLI—with a hamstring injury, Harris rebounded last season to record a career-high eight sacks and become the first defensive tackle in Bears history to be voted to three straight Pro Bowls.

“This is a very proud and happy day for us to have Tommie in the fold,” Angelo said. “As I told Tommie, everything that transpired over these past months, he’s earned. He’s earned that right. We’re very proud of Tommie. He is one of our signature players, somebody who represents us very well not only on the football field but off the football field.”

While Harris is thrilled that his contract extension has been completed, he said that he felt no sense of urgency to get a deal done prior to the July 23 start of training camp.

“It wasn’t a rush for me to hurry-up and get this done,” he said. “But I would love to get it done because you don’t want to be a distraction to your team. I would never go out and talk about the Bears in front of the media or disrespect my team.

“I understand that they had one-year [remaining] on the deal. So this is not something that they had to do or that had to be done. But I felt like they were generous enough to do it.”

Harris denied that he would feel more pressure to perform because of the new contract.

“I feel like the reason why I have this contract is because I’ve already displayed that I can carry this role,” he said. “It’s nothing that I have to become; I’m already there. I guess if people feel like $40 million defines who I am, it really doesn’t.

“It was the principle of the whole deal. I wanted this deal done because the NFL gave me a price tag. I don’t believe any NFL player deserves the amount of money that we do get. But in the business that we’re in, they give us tags and say, ‘This guy’s worth this, this guy’s worth that.’ We play a game—a kids’ game—and get paid a king’s ransom.

“I’m just fortunate to be able to be in this position and I will make the Bears organization proud. I’m ready to go out there and continue to keep being the best defensive tackle in the league.”

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/

Chicago Bears’ Tommie Harris Signs Contract, ‘No NFL Player Deserves the Money We Get’

Posted Jun 20th 2008 8:21PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: Bears, Chicago

Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris signed his four-year, $40 million contract today, and afterward he met with reporters to give an admirably humble view of an eight-figure payday:

“It was the principle of the whole deal. I wanted this deal done because the NFL gave me a price tag. I don’t believe any NFL player deserves the amount of money that we do get. But in the business that we’re in, they give us tags and say, ‘This guy’s worth this, this guy’s worth that.’ We play a game-a kids’ game-and get paid a king’s ransom.

Fans and the media often complain that pro athletes are overpaid, and I’ve never agreed with that: After all, if you can fill a 60,000-seat stadium and get millions to watch you on TV, don’t you deserve to be well-compensated? And yet I respect Harris for saying what he said.

Still, somehow I’m guessing Harris’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, wishes Harris would knock it off with the stuff about no NFL player deserving what they get.

Check this out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwOYSp5AajA

View the finished product @:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgx1dhmg2NY

Giving back to community suits former OU football players to a tee.

@ NEWSOK.COM powered by the Oklahoman

link:

http://newsok.com/article/3238775

By Jake Trotter - Staff Writer

NORMAN — Teddy Lehman walked onto the first tee box and aligned the driver perfectly with the ball.He smoothly motioned the club back and then forward, whacking the ball all of about 2 inches.

The second annual Tommie Harris Celebrity Classic didn’t exactly woo Tiger Woods to Belmar Golf Club on Saturday.

Still, the weekend’s charity event featuring several ex-Sooners now in the NFL reeled in roughly $270,000 for both the Boys & Girls Club ofAmerica and the Tommie Harris Foundation, which raises funds to help prevent child abuse.

“I’ve always loved kids, always loved the Boys & Girls Club since I was in it myself,” said Harris, a standout while at Oklahoma who’s now an all-pro defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears. “When you get to the NFL, you should start a foundation and give back.”

Harris, however, isn’t the only one of his former teammates who have given back.

Last month in Norman, Mark Claytonheld his inaugural Mark Clayton Foundation Charity Weekend, which helped children and families within the foster care system.

Earlier this year, Roy Williamsannounced he would expand the Roy Williams Safety Net Foundation fromDallas to Oklahoma, which will assist low-income single mothers in the area.

Sooner alums in the NFL are giving their fans reasons to be proud.

“The nice thing about these guys is that they’re genuine and they want to make a difference,” said Harris‘ marketing agent, Bill Horn, who lives in Edmond. “They look forward to getting back together. They work so hard to help each other. You don’t always see that in the NFL.

“Also, they love Oklahoma. They all came from different parts of the country, so they’re not Oklahomans, but they’ve adopted Oklahoma as their second state and they love coming back and love the people.”

Many former Sooners played in Harris‘ golf tournament, including Williams of the Dallas Cowboys;Rufus Alexander of the Minnesota Vikings; Brodney Pool of the Cleveland Browns; C.J. Ah You of the St. Louis Rams; Dusty Dvoracek and Mark Bradley of the Bears; Davin Joseph, Donte Nicholson and Lehman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; and Curtis Lofton of the Atla