Honoring John Werito - Navajo Codetalker

My dad, John Werito, enlisted in the Marines in the summer of 1942 after graduating from the Indian Boarding School at Ignacio, Colorado. He was sent with other Navajos to Camp Pendleton near San Diego, California for basic training and then afterwards trained as a radioman and Navajo Codetalker learning the Code.

He was then sent to Maui in the Hawaiian Islands and assigned to the 4th Marine Division there. The 4th Marine Division was assigned the task of landing on the island of Roi Namur and my dad saw action there. Then, the 4th Marine Division landed on Saipan where my dad was wounded. He recovered from his wound and then took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima with the 4th Marine Division where he was wounded again. He was recovering on a hospital ship after refusing to be sent home to the US because he wanted to be part of the invasion of Japan when World War II ended. He remained in the active Marine Corps Reserve in Colorado and was getting ready to ship out as a Navajo Codetalker to Korea when my sister, Nellie was born in May, 1951. He was allowed a discharge from from the Marines because he carried shrapnel in his body from World War II.

He remained settled in Denver, Colorado and the US Post Office as a letter carrier in May, 1951 and retired in 1973 with a disability retirement. He died on March 29, 1983. He is buried in Fort Logan National Cematery.

My mother, Rose, received my dad's Silver Congressional Medal Of Honor in Window Rock, Arizona, The Navajo Nation Capital, on Saturday, November 24, 2002.  My mother, sister and I were present at the ceremony where about 250 Silver Congressional Medals Of Honor were given out to the Navajo Code-talkers.

By: Michael J Werito

Assistant Safety Officer

National Water Quality Laboratory

USGS Bldg 95 DFC