Code Talker Alfred K. Newman services set for Saturday

WINDOW ROCK

Services for Navajo Code Talker Alfred K. Newman Sr., 94, will be in Farmington on Saturday morning.

A viewing will start at 9 a.m., followed by services at 10 a.m. at the Maranatha Fellowship (618 Arrington St., just east of Safeway). Burial will be at the family plot in Whiskey Creek, north of Crystal, New Mexico. After the burial ceremony, a reception will be held at the Crystal Chapter House that begins at 2 p.m.

With the weather and road conditions in mind, Cherylin Newman, the daughter of Alfred Newman, said anyone wanting to attend the burial will require a four-wheel drive, tire chains, and a shovel because the road to the site is muddy.

Pvt. First Class Newman joined the Marine Corps after hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Alfred Newman said he read about the history of the Marines and wanted to become one, according to a 2010 interview with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

In November of 1943, Newman and other Navajo Code Talkers shipped out to Guadalcanal before he made his way to Bougainville Island.

After a month on the island, the Marine was shipped out with the Third Division and headed for Guam where he saw his first action.

Eventually, he landed in Iwo Jima. There, he said, he heard the American flag was raised on Mount Suribachi.

Alfred Newman returned home in 1947.

“Thank you papa for everything you are – faithful, loving, strong, gentle, courageous,” his son wrote on his Facebook page.

There is no official count of how many of the Navajo Code Talkers are left who served during World War II, but most agree there are 8.

According to Zonnie Gorman, the daughter of the late Navajo Code Talker Howard Gorman, eight code talkers remain.

They are: John Kinsel Sr., Thomas Begay, Samuel Sandoval, Joe Vandever, Flemming Begay, William Brown, Sen. John Pinto and Peter McDonald Sr.

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