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Former Navajo Code Talker dies at 92

FARMINGTON, N.M. — Services are set Thursday in Farmington for a former member of the elite Navajo Code Talkers.

John Sells of Shiprock died Friday at age 92.

The Code Talkers were a group of Navajo Marines who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in a code based on their native language. There were 29 original Code Talkers, but several hundred Navajos eventually served as Code Talkers.

According to the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., Code Talkers took part in every Marine assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945.

After the war, they were told to keep their work secret. The information was declassified in 1968, but many Code Talkers were still reluctant to discuss or take credit for their deeds.

Sells’ family didn’t learn about his role for nearly 60 years. Sells enlisted in the Marines in 1944 and served for two years, but it wasn’t until he attended a Code Talkers memorial celebration in 2001 that he confided in his wife and children.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said his wife, Alice Sells. “He never told me. I was excited, I was surprised and I was proud.”

The Code Talkers were honored with congressional medals in 2001 — gold for the original group; silver for the others. Sells received a silver medal.

“He was a really secret person,” said stepdaughter Sharon Tsosie, 32. “He didn’t want to talk about anything. When we asked him, he said it wasn’t a pretty place.”

After the war, Sells became an auto mechanic.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Thursday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. He will be buried at Memorial Gardens.

The Patriot Guard Riders will escort Sells’ funeral procession from the church to the cemetery. Frank Lewis, a Patriot Guard member, said the group honors fallen warriors or veterans.

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Information from: The Daily Times