When the chips were down, time was short, and the message was urgent, Navajos saved the day. Only Indians could talk directly into the radio “mike” without concern for security. They would read the message in English, absorb it mentally, then deliver the words in their native tongue—direct, uncoded, and quickly. You couldn’t fault the Japanese, even other Navajos who weren’t codetalkers, couldn’t understand the codetalkers’ transmissions because they were in a code within the Navajo language.
[Sidebar ([page 19]):]
‘Corpsman!’
Less than one percent of battle casualties on Bougainville died of wounds after being brought to a field hospital, and during 50 operations conducted as the battle of the Koromokina raged and bullets whipped through surgeons’ tents, not a patient was lost.
Painting by Kerr Eby in the Marine Corps Art Collection
Those facts reflect the skill and dedication of the corpsmen, surgeons, and litter bearers who performed in an environment of enormous difficultly. Throughout the fight for the perimeter, the field hospitals were shelled and shaken by bomb blasts, even while surgical operations were being conducted.
Every day there was rain and mud and surgeons practiced their craft with mud to their shoe laces. Corpsmen were shot as they treated the wounded right at the battle scene; others were shot as the Japanese ignored the International Red Cross emblem for ambulances and aid stations.
Bougainville was the first time in combat for the corpsmen assigned to the 3d Marine Division. Two surgeons were with each battalion and, as in all other battles, a corpsman was with each platoon. Aid stations were as close as 30–50 yards behind the lines. The men from the division band were the litter bearers, always on the biting edge of combat.
Many young Marines were not aware until combat just how close they would be to these corpsmen who wore the Marine uniform, and who would undergo every hardship and trial of the man on the line. The corpsman’s job required no commands; he was simply always there to patch up the wounded Marine enough to have him survive and get to a field hospital.