Universiti Tenaga Nasional Research Skills

WINDTALKERS: Summary

This story is about the battle between US and Japan in 1943 World War II. The book
started the story with a flashback stage where a Marine involved in a battle in
Guadalcanal and he felt guilty for his lifetime. Corporal Joseph ‘Joe’ F. Enders was in
charge of his first command because of his lieutenant had been killed on September 11th,
1943. His team wanted to get back and gave it up but he won’t. He followed order to
hold the beach. All his men – Private Tommy Kittring, Private Al Hasby, Private Bill
Mertens -has died in that battle that day except him, himself.

Joe experienced that battle more times in his fever dreams, nightmares in the field
hospital. He was treated for his deep, horrible wounds. And he got a Silver Star too.

There were two Dineeh men, Navajo men, Charlie Whitehorse and Ben Yahzee.
Whitehorse lived the traditional Dineeh life while Yahzee is a modern Navajo. Both are
friends, close friends. They volunteered to fight the white man’s war, as codetalkers. US
army developed military codes based on the Dineeh language that the Japanese – the Japs
– could never crack. They went to Marine basic training camp at the San Diego Marine
Corps Recruit Depot.

Base hospital located in Kaneohe Naval Air Station on the island of Oahu. Rita Swelton
is one of nurses who serve wounded Joe. Joe wanted to go back into combat, he needed
to go. She whispered into Joe’s right ear – he got his left one damaged – that Joe should
go home but he won’t listen. He begged her help in order to pass the test and she did.
She gave signal to Joe when his hearing test began. The last assessment was with Major
Mellitz and Joe passed it and got a promotion too. Sergeant Joseph F. Enders was him.
Major Mellitz sent him back into battle and his job is to keep an Indian codetalker alive
in order the Indian can do his job of codetalking.
Yahzee and Whitehorse finished their training in Camp Tarawa near Kamuela on the Big
Island of Hawaii. Sergeant Peter ‘Ox’ Anderson and Private Charlie Whitehorse is a pair

Windtalkers: Summary Imam Fachrudin/SB20246

Universiti Tenaga Nasional Research Skills

while Sergeant Joseph ‘Joe’ F. Enders and Private Ben Yahzee is another pair. A
friendship between those two sergeants grew fast, between Ox and Whitehorse too, but
neither did Joe and Yahzee.

Before dawn on the morning of June 15th, 1944, Marine invaded the Mariana Island,
Saipan. Those pairs of codetalkers and bodyguards were involved in the Second Recon.
Ox and Whitehorse was in the first squad, Joe and Yahzee was in the second one.
Oops… I almost forget, Joe and Rita had a quarrel and an intimate night too last night
that closed one to another. Beside Joe and Yahzee, the second squad members were John
‘Nelly’ Nells, Ronald ‘Harry’ Harrigan, Nicolas ‘Pappy’ Pappas, Charles ‘Chick’ Rogers,
and their leader was Gunnery Sergeant Eric ‘Gunny’ Hjelmstad. They were all involved
in a bloody battle. It was the first battle for Yahzee and he did like a coward. Yahzee
and Whitehorse did their role to send codes to other unit to support them. They did it
successfully.

When they took a rest, Joe got a letter from the WAVE Barracks at Paradise Cove,
Hawaii. Letter from Rita but he never write her back. A struggle happened between
Yahzee and Chick when Yahze took a bath. Chick thought that Yahzee was a spy
because of Yahzee looked like a Jap and Joe help Yahzee due to following his order as a
bodyguard to protect a codetalker. Then friendship grew between them.

The next battle was in Mount Tipo Pale. They got a friendly fire incident from US
howitzers. But when Yahzee would send a message, he found his radio damaged because
of a shell hit it. Yahzee had an idea to put on a dead Jap’s uniform in order to hold one of
the Jap’s radio. It worked with Joe’s protection but Nelly was dead in this battle.

The next morning in the Marine Artillery base, Yahzee had a replacement of The TBX
for his CR-300 field radio he’d lost in combat yesterday and Joe got a Silver Star for his
gallantry. But he threw that medal away into the grass because that idea was Yahzee’s
not his. Both Joe and Yahzee had a sake drunk that night. Joe had slipped away, landing
hard on the rocky earth, banging his left ear and blood came out of his damaged ear.

Windtalkers: Summary Imam Fachrudin/SB20246

Universiti Tenaga Nasional Research Skills

Yahzee helped him with Navajo-way medicine. Their friendship became better but
again, combat happened in that place.

Harry was dead in this battle firstly and then Ox. Ox was hit by bullets and wounded his
left and right side. He still had time to protect Whitehorse from a Jap’s attack but then
another Jap cut his head separated from his body by a samurai. Joe found a fallen Indian
warrior - Whitehorse - surrounded by many Japanese soldiers. Joe was unarmed because
he lost his Thompson gun due to an explosion. Then he found a grenade, and a dilemma
too. He finally threw the grenade to the Japs. It exploded taking the Japs and the Navajo
warrior with it. He followed order to protect the code inside the codetalker, not the
codetalker himself. Yahzee saw it very angrily. Joe and Yahzee involved in a struggle
but Joe did nothing. Their friendship decreased.

The last combat was in Mount Tapotchau, the highest point on the island. Yahzee had a
shift in attitude after his friend’s death. He became much braver, very very brave. As if
he were in trance, he ran towards the source of fire, the source of the flying bullets,
blasting his M-1 gun and Joe had responsibility to protect the codetalker. Gunny was hit
and dead and then Pappy. Yahzee was trapped underneath the Ha-Go Japanese’s tank.
He sent a message for air support request in Navajo language. He got his left leg
wounded and his bone crashed and Joe helped him. When Yahzee was released, he
realized that his bodyguard had bleeding at his body. A bullet hit him. Joe asked Yahzee
to tell Rita that Joe read all her letters and Sergeant Joseph ‘Joe’ F. Enders died. No
nightmare can hurt him anymore.

The last chapter of this story told the present setting when Major Charles ‘Chick’ Rogers
and Professor Ben Yahzee give a speech in the USS Arizona Memorial. Yahzee
continued his study and he is a professor now. He is the chairman of Native American
History at the University of Arizona. He missed his bodyguard so much but Joe was
gone and only the wind remained.
-----Screenplay Written by John Rice and Joe Batteer, a Novelization by Max Allan Collins-----
-----New York - 2001 - HarperEntertainment an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublisher-----

Windtalkers: Summary Imam Fachrudin/SB20246