Woodland Hills : Marines Repay Debt to Navajos with Toys

When area Marine Corps reservists collected Christmas toys this year to donate to needy Navajo children, they were performing a charitable act. But the Marines say they were also repaying an old debt.

During World War II, the Marines recruited Navajos to serve as radio operators in the South Pacific. Called “code talkers,” they conversed in their native tongue, confusing the enemy about Marine movements.

“The Japanese never broke that code,” said Col. Ray Blum, who is in charge of the local toys program. “It was one of the many reasons that we won that war.”

The friendship between the Marines and Navajo people has endured. Each holiday season, as part of the reserve’s Toys for Tots campaign, Marine Corps Reserve centers throughout the state collect toys for children on Four Corners Reservation, in the corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

On Tuesday, Blum and other Los Angeles-based reservists presented about 1,000 toys to members of a Navajo delegation at a dinner in Woodland Hills.

One member, Ed Cadman, likes to tell stories about his late father, William, one of the radio operators. In calling for bombing raids, the code talkers would say, in the Navajo language, “The eagle needs to fly over and drop her eggs in the nest,” Cadman said. “And while you’re at it, tell the big bird to bring us some potatoes [grenades].”

The toys bring joy to reservation children, many of whom live in poverty, said Ellouise Hoschain, another member of the Navajo delegation. She said that when she was a child, she had no toys and fashioned toy cars by chipping away at rocks.

“I never had a toy until I was in the eighth grade,” she said. “It was a Barbie doll.”

Anyone who wishes to donate should bring unwrapped new toys to the Marine Corps Reserve center at 6337 Balboa Blvd. in Encino. For information call (818) 705-1318.