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John McLeod, now 91, learned one of the best-kept secrets of World War II as a 20-year-old Marine.
The Marine Corps' first 29 Navajo code-talker recruits are sworn in at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, on May 5,1942.
Rex Kontz, center, poses for a photo with other Navajo code talkers who served in the Marine Corps during World War II. Portland native John McLeod sat next to Kontz in the Marines communications office in Okinawa in 1945.
Pfc. Preston Toledo and Pfc. Frank Toldeo, Navajo code talkers seen on July 7, 1943, were cousins attached to a Marine artillery regiment in the South Pacific. They relayed orders over a field radio using their native tongue.
Cpl. Henry Bake Jr. and Pfc. George H. Kirk were Navajo Indians serving with a Marine Signal Unit. In this photo from December 1943, they operate a portable radio set in a clearing they've hacked in the dense jungle close behind the front lines in New Guinea.
John McLeod, 91, a Marine veteran, talks about working side by side with Navajo code talkers during World War II, in an interview at his home in Westbrook on Monday.
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