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Code Talker / A proud MarineFrom Page A-1■m )MArdith Chase Curley, worked as an interpreter. ;4lp|Among his volunteer work was cleaning the mission’s church, rolling blankets to distribute at Christmas services on the reservation, and handing out dinners at Thanksgiving.The couple also distributed food to families on the reservation and they helped anyone in need in addition to sharing the Christian message. •“He didn’t want to see people go hungry.” Etta said.When inebriated individuals asked Curley for money, he would pray with them instead of giving cash.In Curley’s obituary it was not difficult to notice, “Mr. Aloha,’’ which was a nickname Curley received when he was in stationed in Hawaii.“Everybody knew him by that because it was the first thing he said in greeting, Etta said.He used the greeting with family, friends, associates and people he passed on the street.“It was his way of saying, ’Hi,”* she said.Curley also loved playing theharmonica, an instrument he playedwell into his later years.“He sure was good at it,” Etta said. “He played up it until he lost his teethSo it was fitting that the harmonica was played during the funeralservice.As lifelong Flagstaff resident, heReuben Curley Sr.was a fixture at the annual Fourth of July parade and raced horses during the powwow at Fort Tuthill County Park, located three miles south ofthe city.Curley’s love for horses startedas a child, he used to herd nearly 100 horses in his younger days, Ettasaid.After retirement, he owned two horses. Bale and Bill, which he visited twice a day and were housedin Doney Park, a residential area northeast of Flagstaff.Curley was bom July 10, I916 in Bird Springs, Ariz. He was Hashk’aan hadzohf (Yucca Fruit-Strung-Out-In-A-Line Clan), bom for ‘Ashiihf (Salt Clan).He was a well-known basketball player at Albuquerque IndianSchool. AW'“He played like Steve Nash,” Ardith said. “He was the best player.’’ 'ACurley enlisted in the U.S. Marines in August 1943 and served with the 2nd Marine Division and was a qualified rifle sharpshooter.He saw combat at Tinian, Saipan. Guadalcanal and Okinawa and also served in the occupation of Japan.He received various medals,including a Purple Heart, and the Navajo Code Talker Congressional Silver Medal.Etta said her father was not formally trained as a code talker but learned the code from his friend and code talker George H. Kirk Sr.She recalled her father telling the family that one time when he and Kirk were in battle, Kirk was hit so Curley picked up the field radio and began translating messages.“He said it was a good thing to teach because it saved the platoon,” Etta said adding that because of her father ’s actions, his name was added to the code talker list.After being honorably discharged January 1946, Curley worked putting up fencing to establish the reservation boundary in Leupp, Ariz. then worked at a lumber company in Heber.Ariz.Were there other Code Talkers?By Cindy Yuvtm TstYi* Bi «i xiCHI NIT — It took decades before the US. government acknowledged the existence of the Navajo Code Talkers in the US. Marines.Now, a Navajo veteran’s granddaughter says, there is evidence that there were code talkers in at least one other branchof the Service,Tina Charley of Los Angeles,Calif., said she was reading Navajo Times to her 91-year* old grandfather, Perry Toney ofFlagstaff, when she came across an article about a Code Talker passing away.According to Charley, Toney casually remarked. “You know, Granddaughter. 1 was a Code Talker too.”Charley pointed out that Toneywas in the Army, not the Marines,but Toney insisted that the 158thinfantry, also knows as the “Arwona Bush masters,” had 29 Navajos who were also trained as Code Talkers. Toney told Charley the Bushmasters came up with their own “ABCs or code .independentof the Marines, and used it to win some of the bloodiest battles of thePacific theater.Toney reportedly told Charley that his buddies Lee Bradley Jr., Dale Winney, Joe iapaha and Joe Gishicould confirm the story if they were still alive.Charley has been able to confirm some of the men her grandfather mentioned have died, but has been unable to track down ail of them, She also found this rather odd picture on the Internet, apparently picked up by a wire service and run in several American newspapers in1943.The caption says the men were in traditional Navajo dress for a Christmas ceremony,” but Toney told Charley the guys were just messing around, making “Indian” headdresses out of palm leaves to cheer up their buddies in theShe hopes running it in the Times will spark some memories and she can get to the bottom of what may well be a forgotten chapter ofHe worked for 46 years as an ammunition handler at the Navajo Army Depot, now known as Camp Navajo, in Bellemont, Ariz.He retired but was called back to teach others how to handle ammunition when the facility went under operational control by the Arizona National Guard.Like other code talker families, Etta said they did not know he was one until the federal government in 1968 declassified the information.“He was proud he was a Marine code talker,” she said.Curley was a member of the Navajo Code Talkers Association for many years and Etta remembers traveling with her father to meetings in Window Rock and Gallup.Curley was buried with full military honors Aug. 11 in the veterans’ section at Citizens Cemetery in Flagstaff.His wife, Ardith; daughters, Etta, Lena Wilson, Mary Jane Curley and Helen Curley; sons, Reuben Curley Jr., Luby Curley and George Curley; sisters, Girdie Hyjoe and Rosie Kearns; and 40 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren survive him.He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Nellie Nezzie; son, Bruce Curley; sisters, Ora Curley, Vina Curley and Polly Curley; and brothers, Harris Curley, Tony Curley and Phillip Curley.Curley is the fifth code talker to die this year, after Keith Little, of Crystal, N.M.; Jimmie Begay, of Sawmill, Ariz,; Samuel Tso, of Lukachukai, Ariz.; and Frank CheeWilletto Sr., of Pueblo Pintado,N.M.they were an elite force who learned jungle combat and ended up on the front lines in some pivotal battles.And Toney will always be a hero in his granddaughter’s eyes.“Whatever these guys’ story it,I’d really like to find out more aboutit,” she said. “They deserve to haveit told.”If you know anything about the photo or these other” Code Talkers, please email Charley at tcharley® dentistry.ucla.edu and this reporter at mrsswanneeCftme com.Whether or not the Bushmasters were Code Talkers, history tells us
Newspaper Details
Navajo Times
Window Rock, Arizona, US
Thu, Aug 23, 2012
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Edith B.
NA, 01 Jun 2019
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