WWII private among youngest in war - Wasn't even 16 yet when the war ended

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/NEWS05/805250549

May 25, 2008

Judging by his birth date, U.S. Army veteran Warren Buys was one of the youngest Americans in World War II.

Born on Sept. 21, 1929, Buys wasn't even 16 when the war ended in August 1945 in the Pacific theater, where he served.

To enlist so young, "I think he had to lie" about his age, said his daughter Lyla Mallory, 38. She visited his grave last week with her sister Chance Wynimko, 45.

A retired welder, Buys died of heart disease at 75 on May 20, 2005. His stone reads: "PVT, US Army," abbreviating his rank.

[CountAllVotes]

1. actually that is not true

Many (if not all) of the Navajo Code Talkers were under the age of 16 years. Some lied about their age in order to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. Often times, not even the parents of the children that were taken from the Navajo reservation knew where or why their young boys were missing. :(

There is an interesting video that I got very recently made in the early 1980s about this entire story. It is appropriately untitled "Navajo Code Talkers" and it can be found at http://www.visionmaker.org/code_h.html if you happen to be interested in this chapter of American history that has been almost forgotten.

>>This film uses 1940s archival footage of Navajo life and from the US military to show the vital role a small group of Navajo Marines played in the South Pacific during World War II. Featured are interviews with Navajo Chairman Peter Mac Donald, artists Carl Gorman and R.C. Gorman and a Presidential commendation by Ronald Reagan.




:dem:

[NNN0LHI]

2. Thank you for the historical info and link

I will watch the video for sure a bit later today. Thanks again.

:hi:

Don

[CountAllVotes]

4. I bought the video

My late father was in the Marine Corps. during WWII and he was in the south pacific and mentioned the Navajo Code Talkers to me when I was a kid. He said that, "No one knew what they were saying, no one!". I thought he meant that no one understood what the Code Talkers were saying because they were speaking Navajo but it turns out that the "Code" is in fact an ancient hunting ritual where a specific type of Navajo is spoken and only known by very few.

I suspect that in the 1940s there were only a few young boys left that knew how to "talk the code" so to speak and thus the reason they were snapped up off of the reservation to be part of WWII whether they liked it or not. I wonder today if the "Code Talk" is still known by anyone in the Navajo tribe (?).

This video gave me much to think about. I really felt sorry for the men they interviewed some 40 years after WWII. Some were close to being homeless, had obvious PTSD, and other ugly horrible problems.

I hope you like the video. Some of the music on it made by the Navajo Marines during battles that were faced are quite haunting (like Iwo Jima).

[FARAFIELD]

5. During the WWII Memorial week

I met some of the code talkers (also Tuskeegee Airmen) a lot of those groups were given forums during the Celebration during that week on the Mall. They talked openly about their being aged 16 and younger, although some were older. My father had been asked to talk during the POW forum (he was captured on Corrigedor in 1942) so I was in that tent all day and it was fascinating to hear all the groups talked. Each group was given several hours, but still didnt seem like enough. I believe the Smithsonian sponsored the forums and so there is a record somewhere.

[DFW]

3. A friend of mine was sort of like that

When he was 14, he was shooting machine guns at the Nazi occupiers of
his country (he was from France). Although he went on to become an "upstanding"
member of society, running a travel agency in Paris, he never lost his
disdain for authority in any shape or form. I still miss him. A non-smoker
all his life, everyone else in the travel agency, including his wife, was
a heavy smoker, and he was the one who died of lung cancer.