A special ceremony honoring three Navajo Code Talkers will take place during Mount Rushmore National Memorial’s annual Independence Day Celebration July 3.

Superintendent Gerard Baker will be joined by the Wild Horse Butte Tokala Color Guard and the Ellsworth Air Force Base Honor Guard in a flag folding ceremony and a presentation of American flags to Arthur J. Hubbard, Sr., Joe Morris and George B. Willie, Sr.

Hubbard, Morris and Willie will be honored for their heroic service as Navajo code talkers during World War II. Between 1942 and 1945, over 400 U.S. Marine Corps Navajo code talkers used their native language to develop highly accurate and efficient codes to transmit military information in the Pacific theater. The undecipherable Navajo code took only minutes to transmit compared to the hours it took to translate messages in Morse code. The Navajo code talkers served in all six Marine divisions and were praised for their central role in the United State’s victory at Iwo Jima.

A special feature of the ceremony will be the flags that the three men will
receive. Three American flags will be inside the B-1 Bomber that will
perform the 7 p.m. flyover over the memorial and will be given to the code
talkers after the event.