Have you ever wanted to be a secret agent?

What about an American hero? Picture it, you're in the midst of the battle, bullets are flying everywhere around you. Could you be calm enough to send battle winning messages over the radio in a secret language?

Maybe you think this is an impossible dream. Maybe you live in the middle of nowhere and nothing exciting ever happens. Well, grab a seat and let me tell you a real story about real American heroes who thought the same thing!

It was 1940 and the United States was deep in the middle of World War II. America was struggling with keeping secrets from their enemy. Every time a message was sent with important battle information, Japan would intercept the message and use the information to keep winning the war.

The United States needed a new plan!

One day, as Philip Johnston was working his normal job in Los Angeles, California, he read about how Japan was breaking the secret code the United States had in place.

He had an idea!

You see, Mr. Johnston was a normal kid from Topeka, Kansas.

When he was 4 years old, his family moved to a Navajo reservation to be missionaries. Philip grew up learning the Navajo language.

Only people on the reservation could speak this language.

Philip remembered that during World War I the Army used the Choctaw language to transmit codes. Why couldn't they use the Navajo language this time?

No one else knew the language except those on the reservation because it had never been written down - it was a perfect plan!

Being a Marine veteran, Mr. Johnston called an old Marine friend about his idea.

After many meetings, because that is what old people like to do, his idea of using the Navajo language was accepted!

In May, 1942 the TOP Secret program began. Twenty-nine Navajo's arrived in San Diego, California to begin creating the secret code. Pretty cool, huh?

Wait, it gets better!

This TOP Secret group became known as the Code Talkers.

They created a four hundred and eleven word code list. They could decode a message in twenty SECONDS. (yes, I said seconds) The same message took a machine thirty MINUTES to decode.

These men were amazing!

Throughout World War II, there were a total of 400 Navajo Code Talkers. Because these men were so important, each had their own bodyguard who followed them throughout the battle fields to keep them protected.

If you didn't have a Code Talker at both ends of the radio, the code did not work.

No one, other than the Code Talkers, could decode the classified code.

They didn't get bit by a spider and receive super powers and they didn't have the ability to fly with a cape. They were from the middle of nowhere; probably where nothing exciting ever happened.

But their contribution to the war made them heroes!

Remember, these men, the Code Talkers, were regular people.

Because of the Code Talkers unbreakable code, the course of the war changed.

Japan could no longer intercept the United States plans.