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John Kinsel Sr., one of the last Navajo Code Talkers from World War II, dies at 107
John Kinsel Sr., one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages during World War II based on the tribe’s native language, has died. He was 107.
Navajo Nation officials in Window Rock announced Kinsel’s death on Saturday.
Tribal President Buu Nygren has ordered all flags on the reservation to be flown at half-staff until Oct. 27 at sunset to honor Kinsel.
“Mr. Kinsel was a Marine who bravely and selflessly fought for all of us in the most terrifying circumstances with the greatest responsibility as a Navajo Code Talker,” Nygren said in a statement Sunday.
With Kinsel’s death, only two original Navajo Code Talkers are still alive: Former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald and Thomas H. Begay.
Robert Alexander / Getty Images
Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by the Marines to serve as Code Talkers during the war, transmitting messages based on their then-unwritten native language.
They confounded Japanese military cryptologists, who were breaking the U.S. military’s codes routinely during World War II.
“It was taken for granted they could interpret whatever we were transmitting,” Richard Bonham, a World War II radio operator, told “60 Minutes” in 2002.
The Code Talkers also participated in all assaults the Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu and Iwo Jima.
The Code Talkers sent thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications crucial to the war’s ultimate outcome.
The language lacked modern military terms, so they came up with creative solutions, like substituting radar for owl — a bird that can see far away — and hand grenade for potato — because of their similar shapes.
Kinsel was born in Cove, Arizona, and lived in the Navajo community of Lukachukai.
He enlisted in the Marines in 1942 and became an elite Code Talker, serving with the 9th Marine Regiment and the 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
President Ronald Reagan established Navajo Code Talkers Day in 1982 and the Aug. 14 holiday honors all the tribes associated with the war effort.
The day is an Arizona state holiday and Navajo Nation holiday on the vast reservation that occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah.
A helicopter crashed into a radio tower near downtown Houston Sunday night, killing four people on board, including a child, fire officials said.
Houston authorities said the aircraft, a privately-owned R44 helicopter, went down just before 8 p.m. after taking off from Ellington Field, about 15 miles away. Its destination wasn’t immediately known.
A nearby security camera caught the crash as it happened:
CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reported that the tower’s lights weren’t working, and the Federal Aviation Administration had put out a notification about it:
The bodies haven’t been identified and the victims’ ages haven’t been determined, authorities said.
Local media outlets reported a large amount of emergency personnel responding to the scene.
Police and fire officials urged residents near the crash site to call 911 if they find anything on their property that could help in their investigation.
Tommy Edman and Will Smith homered to send Shohei Ohtani into the World Series for the first time, and the Los Angeles Dodgers eliminated the New York Mets with a 10-5 victory in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series on Sunday night.
The Dodgers clinched their record 25th NL pennant and first at home since 1988, when they beat the Mets in seven games. They moved on to their 22nd World Series — 13th in Los Angeles — and first since 2020, when they beat Tampa Bay during the pandemic-delayed season.
Next up for Ohtani and Co. is Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees, who are back in the World Series for the 41st time and first in 15 years. Game 1 is Friday at Dodger Stadium, pitting Judge (58) and Ohtani (54) — MLB’s top home-run hitters this season.
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It’ll be the 12th time the storied franchises meet in the World Series and the first in 43 years. The Yankees have beaten the Dodgers eight times, while the Dodgers’ two championships against the Bronx Bombers came in 1981 and 1955.
Ohtani, playing his first season with the Dodgers after agreeing to a record-breaking contract in free agency, had two hits and scored two runs in Game 6. He hit .364 with two homers and six RBIs in the NLCS.
Not bad for his first postseason after spending six years with the Los Angeles Angels, who never had a winning record or reached the playoffs during his tenure.
Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen struck out Brandon Nimmo, Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso swinging in the eighth in his first two-inning outing since the 2021 NLCS.
The Dodgers briefly trailed 1-0 before cleanup hitter Edman came up big.
He drove in the Dodgers’ first four runs and his 11 RBIs in the NLCS tied a franchise record set by Corey Seager in 2020 against Atlanta. Edman joined the Dodgers at the July trade deadline from St. Louis.
The Dodgers eliminated the Mets on their second try in the series. They outscored New York 40-26 in the six games. None of the games were close, with the Dodgers earning two shutouts.
The Mets came within two wins of reaching the World Series after a 22-33 start.
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