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| PFC Paul Kinlahcheeny was one of the original Navajo Code Talkers and served in the 5th Marine Division at Iwo Jima. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56113068 https://stationhypo.com/2017/05/04/5045/ |
Paul Kinlahcheeny never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Paul was born on May 28, 1920 in New Mexico. I was not able to find any census record for Paul or his family. He was married to Lorraine Sanostee. He had a son and a daughter.
He enlisted in the US Marine Corps. He became a private first class in the 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division.
PFC Kinlahcheeny was one of the original 29 Code Talkers. Eventually about 4,200 were trained. The idea for the Navajo Code Talkers was proposed by Phillip Johnson, who learned Navajo at the age of nine while his parents were missionaries on a Navajo reservation. He knew that at that point there had never been a Navajo dictionary published and that no more than 40 non-Navajos on the planet could speak the language. It would be the perfect way to communicate in the open during battles with the Japanese without risk that the enemy would crack their language.
Like most native Americans, the Navajo had been mistreated by the policies of the US government and many of their citizens. There was good reason for their men of fighting age to not come to the aid of the USA. Nevertheless, many Navajos willingly volunteered for the military.
The Code Talkers first saw action at Guadalcanal and would be with the Marines at every landing after that. PFC Kinlahcheeny was still stateside in October 1943, but he no doubt was in the South Pacific by 1944. His final campaign was at Iwo Jima.
An interview with PFC Kinlahcheeny's friend John Lauriello in SJMag tells us some details about Paul. John and Paul slept toe to toe for the 50 day voyage to Iwo Jima. At one point they were tasked with unloading some food supplies. Paul grabbed a can of peaches for himself. Later there was an announcement on the ship intercom complaining that 25% of the delivered food was missing.
Paul decided to take his can of peaches with him in his pack when he and John offloaded for the trip to the black Iwo Jima beaches on the morning of February 19, 1945. He planned to eat them for dinner. They had been on the beach for less than a minute when Paul said, "John, what should we do now?" John turned to answer and saw his friend dead from a bullet that struck his chest.
His grave is at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. His widow remarried and died in 2009. His children are likely still alive. John Lauriello named his son Paul in honor of his friend.
In 2001 the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers were recognized with the Congressional Gold Medal.
This is one of the final 100 stories (98) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75 anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled WWII Normandy fallen Thomas Laverty, 9th Infantry Division. You can read about Thomas here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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