Under the eagle : Samuel Holiday, Navajo code talker

Book

Under the eagle : Samuel Holiday, Navajo code talker / Samuel Holiday and Robert S. McPherson.

Holiday, Samuel, 1924- (Author). McPherson, Robert S., 1947- (Added Author).

Summary:

Samuel Holiday was one of a small group of Navajo men enlisted by the Marine Corps during World War II to use their native language to transmit secret communications on the battlefield. Based on extensive interviews with Robert S. McPherson, Under the Eagle is Holiday's vivid account of his own story. It is the only book-length oral history of a Navajo code talker in which the narrator relates his experiences in his own voice and words. Under the Eagle carries the reader from Holiday's childhood years in rural Monument Valley, Utah, into the world of the United States' Pacific campaign against Japan - to such places as Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. Central to Holiday's story is his Navajo worldview, which shapes how he views his upbringing in Utah, his time at an Indian boarding school, and his experiences during World War II. Holiday's story, coupled with historical and cultural commentary by McPherson, shows how traditional Navajo practices gave strength and healing to soldiers facing danger and hardship and to veterans during their difficult readjustment to life after the war. The Navajo code talkers have become famous in recent years through books and movies that have dramatized their remarkable story. Their wartime achievements are also a source of national pride for the Navajos. And yet, as McPherson explains, Holiday's own experience was "as much mental and spiritual as it was physical." This decorated marine served "under the eagle" not only as a soldier but also as a Navajo man deeply aware of his cultural obligations.

Record details

ISBN: 9780806143897 (hardcover : alkaline paper)
ISBN: 0806143894 (hardcover : alkaline paper)
Physical Description: xi, 266 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Publisher: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Introduction: Decoding the Past : Origin and Context of Under the Eagle -- Establishing Beliefs : Birth and Early Years -- Diné Language and Control : Boarding School and Enlistment -- Training and Protection : Preparation for War -- Traditional and Contemporary Combat : First Encounter : Kwajalein -- The Hard Edge of Combat : Saipan and Tinian : Protection Made Tangible -- The Final Crucible : Iwo Jima : The Code Talkers' Triumph -- After the War : A Different Kind of Battle -- Recognition and Reconciliation : Samuel and the Code Talkers Association.