John Kinsel Sr., a World War II veteran who was one of the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers, a group of Marines whose encrypted wartime messages based on the Navajo language helped secure an Allied victory in the Pacific, died on Saturday. He was 107.
Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, announced Mr. Kinsel’s death in a post on social media from Window Rock, Ariz.
An estimated 400 Navajo Code Talkers served during World War II, transmitting a code crafted from the Navajo language that U.S. forces used to confuse the Japanese and communicate troop movements, enemy positions and other critical battlefield information.
Mr. Kinsel, who served from October 1942 to January 1946, was part of the second group of Marines trained as code talkers at Camp Elliott, Calif., after the original 29 who developed the code for wartime use.
The code was never broken. A fictionalized version of the code talkers’ story was depicted in the 2002 film “Windtalkers,” directed by John Woo.
In an interview in 2019 with The Arizona Republic, Mr. Kinsel remembered training alongside 25 other marines at Camp Elliott. He recalled working with some of the original 29 to develop additional code, including devising code for military words like “tank” and “aircraft.”
Mr. Kinsel was assigned to the Ninth Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division, and took part behind the scenes in the battles of Bougainville (in Papau New Guinea), Guam and Iwo Jima. He was never deployed to the front lines, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, but he worked with his division headquarters while on Bougainville Island to develop code and transcribe messages.
“That’s how I spent the war,” he told The Arizona Republic.
The last two surviving Navajo Code Talkers are Thomas H. Begay and Peter MacDonald, a former Navajo chairman, The Associated Press reported.
John Kinsel Sr. was born in 1917 in Cove, Ariz., according to the Navajo Times. He graduated from high school and enlisted in the Marines in 1942. He was sent to Camp Elliott after completing boot camp.
Shipped to New Zealand, he trained for eight more months before being deployed to Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands, with the Third Marine Division.
The code-talkers often sent out messages about troop movements, Mr. Kinsel told the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project in 2003.
“We sent out jumpoffs every night,” he said. “That means what time the front lines are going to move. It’s not always the same time — it’s always a different time. It might be four o’clock in the morning; it might be 6:15. In Navajo you said, ‘It’s time to jump.’”
In the interview for the Veterans History Project, Mr. Kinsel recalled how, on March 2, 1945, he and his group didn’t listen to a warning that the Japanese were going to bomb their location in Iwo Jima. About 11:30 p.m., he and his equipment were rocked by an explosion that broke his leg, he said. He received a Purple Heart in 1989.
Mr. Kinsell was sent back to Guam for a few months and returned to San Diego in December 1945. He was honorably discharged on Jan. 1.
In the interview with The Arizona Republic, Mr. Kinsel said his mother had a Navajo medicine man come over to perform a ceremony for his return.
“He prayed for me and performed a night ceremony,” he said, speaking in Navajo to The Republic. “Then I returned to being a Navajo, we were given back to the Navajo.”
In 2001, he received a Congressional Silver Medal for his service.
Mr. Kinsel is survived by his son, Ronald Kinsel. A full list of survivors was not immediately available.
All flags in the Navajo Nation were to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise on Sunday until sunset next Sunday, Oct. 27, Mr. Nygren said in a statement.
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