© 2024 KGOU
News and Music for Oklahoma
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Comanche Code Talkers Honored By State And Nation

USMC Archives
/
Flickr.com

Personal photographs, military uniforms and a Nazi flag captured during World War II are some of the items on display at a new exhibit honoring Comanche Code Talkers.

The exhibit that opened Thursday in the southwestern Oklahoma community of Lawton honors 17 Comanche men who used their language as a secret code during the war.

The exhibit's opening coincides with the upcoming expected presentation of Congressional Gold Medals.

Hugh Foster III, whose father supervised the Code Talkers, said the Comanche language didn't have some of the necessary military words and the group had to devise descriptive words.

For example, bomber was described in the Comanche language as pregnant airplane.

Comanche Nation Chairman Wallace Coffey says many people didn't realize Comanches were code talkers because "they pledged secrecy."

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.
More News
Support nonprofit, public service journalism you trust. Give now.