Posted by Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> :
So if this was a ceremony, I imagine the Army color guard was
there with their flag complete with the battle streamer "honoring"
the massacre of the women and children at Wounded Knee.
Want to read about this "battle
streamer"..<http://www.dickshovel.com/smith.html>
I do not want to take away from the honor that this man
received today, it just a shame that the Army can't figure out that
it is time to rescind the Medals of (dis)honor given to those who
participated in the massacre at WK.
<http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Code-Talkers.html>
November 30, 1999
World War II Code Talker Honored
Filed at 12:29 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army today presented a special award to the
last surviving member of an elite World War II group that used their
native language as an unbreakable code to relay sensitive U.S.
military messages during the crucial weeks following the D-Day
landings in Europe.
Charles Chibitty of the Comanche Code Talkers received the Knowlton
Award in a ceremony in the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes. The award,
established in 1995 by the Military Intelligence Corps Association,
recognizes individuals for outstanding intelligence work. It was
named for Lt. Col. Thomas Knowlton, who served in the Revolutionary
War.
Chibitty was one of 17 Comanche Indians recruited to serve in the
Army Signals Corps because of their unique language. Like the larger
group of Navajo Indians who performed a similar service as Marines in
the Pacific theater during World War II, the Comanches were dubbed
``code talkers.''
The Comanches coded messages from the battlefields in Europe back to
division headquarters, where another of their group decoded the
messages, thereby avoiding the common problem of enemy decoding. They
used the phrase ``crazy white man'' -- posah-tai-vo in Comanche -- to
refer to Adolf Hitler. Because they had a native word for airplane
but not bomber, they used the Comanche phrase for ``pregnant
airplane.''
Chibitty, 78, was born near Medicine Park, Okla. He enlisted in the
Army in January 1941 and achieved the rank of corporal. He earned the
World War II Victory Medal, the European Theater of Operations (5th
Bronze Star) Victory Medal, the Europe African Middle East Campaign
Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.
