Alfred K. Newman (July 7, 1924 – January 13, 2019) was a

United States Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

, best known for serving as a Navajo

code talker A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their k ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Born in Rehoboth, New Mexico, on the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native American reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah; at roughly , the ...

, Newman and his fellow native students were not allowed to speak the

Navajo language Navajo or Navaho (; Navajo: or ) is a Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of North America. Navajo is spoken primarily in the Southwestern United Stat ...

in school. With the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

in mind, he joined the Marine Corps on March 26, 1943, and became one of over 400 code talkers. In November 1943, Newman was part of the Guadalcanal Campaign, before he spent a month on Bougainville Island. He then went with the 3rd Division to

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

, before ultimately landing for the end of the Battle of Iwo Jima. Newman was honorably discharged with the rank of

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...

in December 1945, and he worked as an ammunition inspector at

Fort Wingate Fort Wingate was a military installation near Gallup, New Mexico. There were two other locations in New Mexico called Fort Wingate: Seboyeta, New Mexico (1849–1862) and San Rafael, New Mexico (1862–1868). The most recent Fort Wingate (186 ...

and later at an open-pit mine overseeing blasting at Kirtland Field. Newman was married to Betsy Eleanor, his wife of 69 years. They had five children. He died at age 94 at the veterans hospital in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

. His death puts the number of code talkers still living at around 10.

References

1924 births 2019 deaths Navajo code talkers United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II People from McKinley County, New Mexico Military personnel from New Mexico 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans {{US-mil-bio-stub