WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Samuel Billison, a member of a group of Navajo
Marines who invented a military code based on the tribal language to confound
the Japanese during World War II, died Wednesday of a heart problem, according
to the Navajo Nation. His age was not immediately known.

The Navajos - called the Code Talkers - used the code and their native language
to communicate troop movements and orders, developing a secret vocabulary that
renamed military armaments and equipment using rough equivalents in Navajo.

Airplanes became birds, ships became fish and weapons were named after various
items. For example, the word ``bomb'' was replaced by the Navajo word for
``egg.''

Billison was a longtime president of the Code Talker Association, and also
served on the Navajo Nation Council.

Billison joined the Marines after high school in 1943. He said he was sent to
test as a code talker when he completed boot camp and the Marines realized he
was fluent in Navajo and English.

Billison and his fellow code talkers were not allowed to discuss their work
when they returned home after the war.

The Defense Department first released information on the code talkers in 1968.