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Generals
Support Civilian Trauma Training in
Senate Hearing
Thursday, May 4,
2006
Washington,
DC – Top military commanders testified
yesterday at the Senate Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee to review the FY2007 Defense
Health Program. Among the issues
of unanimous agreement was the necessity
of continuing to provide our military
medics with trauma training in the clinical
environment. According to testimony,
this practice ensures that all military
medical personnel, from surgeons to
nurses, are equipped with the necessary
tools for success in war time.
Army
Surgeon General Kevin Kiley highlighted
the importance of “clinical teamwork”
in caring for the wounded and noted
that this training is now usually learned
in the pre-deployment setting as opposed
to “on-the-job.” Air Force Surgeon
General George Peach Taylor, Jr., pointed
to the success of the Coalition for
Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness
Skills, or C-STARS. The program
and similar ones like the Tacoma Trauma
Trust (TTT) partners the military with
civilian medical centers throughout
the country to provide civilian trauma
training to military medics.
According
to General Taylor, C-STARS is “a mutually
beneficial relationship that enhances
preparedness both at home and abroad.
Many students laud C-STARS as
the best medical training they have
received to prepare them for deployment.”
The
clinical setting can be highly beneficial
for military nurses as well. Rear
Admiral Christine Bruzek-Kohler of the
U.S. Navy Nurse Corp said she considered
clinical proficiency to be one of the
five priorities for Navy Nursing, adding
that joint training in both military
and civilian medical communities is
“essential” for readiness.
Assistant
Air Force Surgeon General Melissa Rank
mandated that nurses working in outpatient
and non-clinical roles complete at least
168 hours annually with inpatient units
to maintain their skills.
C-STARS,
TTT, and many similar programs provide
a rare symbiotic relationship that serves
the needs of both the military and civilian
medical centers and enhances the efforts
of our forces abroad.
Chief
of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Submits
Letter to Native American Times Urging
Passage of the Code Talkers Recognition
Act
Soldiers
in Top Secret Program Deserve Recognition
Submitted
By Choctaw Chief Gregory E. Pyle 11/2/2006
Ralph
Waldo Emerson once said “Language is
the archives of history.” It holds not
only where we have been, but who we
are. On Veteran’s Day in particular,
we write stories, sing songs, and create
memorials to our men and women in arms,
whose bravery and sacrifice have made,
and continue to make, our way of life
and freedoms possible. We make such
remembrances to strengthen ourselves,
personally and as a people and to keep
fresh the truth that freedom comes with
a price. What greater fear should we
have then to have our history, ourselves,
disappear into a timeless abyss, forgotten
by all. Such actions of recognition
are the essence of Veterans’ Day.
It
is with a proud sense of the history
of service given by Native American
men and women that I ask for consideration
on this Veterans’ Day of another story
in need of recognition. It is a story
of brave men and valiant deeds, which
begins with the use of language. It
has been almost 90 years since Choctaws
gave their service to the United States
and joined the Army to travel across
the ocean to a foreign land. Despite
the fact that citizenship was not granted
to Native Americans until 1924, our
men, along with hundreds of men from
other Native American Tribes, volunteered
to defend their Country.
In
the midst of battlefields in France,
Choctaw men were overheard speaking
their Native language by an officer
frustrated with the lack of security
of battlefield communications. The officer
said “Maybe the Germans can’t speak
Choctaw.” Instructing the Choctaws to
use their words as “code”, they were
placed strategically on front lines
and at command posts so that messages
could be transmitted without being understood
by the enemy. Critical to the War in
the West, these men were responsible
for saving Allied lives and material.
Eighteen
Choctaw men have been documented as
being the first to use their own language
as a “code” to transmit military messages.
The military was quick to recognize,
in dispatches, the utility of the use
of Native languages as code, and during
World War II, the Korean War, and the
Vietnam War, Native men from a number
of Tribes were sent to serve in front
line detachments as “Code Talkers”.
In the skies over Germany, they coordinated
the bombing of enemy arsenals. The first
message from an American beach during
D-Day was sent by a Code Talker. In
many island battles in the Pacific,
from the New Guinea attacks to the sand
of Iwo Jima, the famed Navajo Code Talkers,
the Windtalkers of movie and story,
served with pride and distinction.
However,
to this day, the exploits and service
of many of these men remain largely
unknown and unheralded. The Navajo Code
Talkers rightly received the recognition
they deserved in 2000, when the Congress
of a Grateful Nation bestowed upon the
survivors and their descendants, Congressional
Medals. However, similar recognition
for other Code Talkers, has not been
given.
On
this Day of Honor for our Veterans,
their families and their Nation, we
ask that the Congress right this failure.
The
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, along with
Comanche and Sioux tribal members, are
working with Congress to get federal
recognition for all Code Talkers. The
Code Talker Recognition Act (S 1035)
sponsored by Senator Inhofe and co-sponsored
by an overwhelming 79 Senators, has
passed the Senate unanimously.
Yet
its future, or the future of a companion
bill, sponsored by Congresswoman Kay
Granger of Texas (HR 4597), in the House
of Representatives is clouded. TIME
FOR ACTION IN THIS TWO YEAR CONGRESS
IS RUNNING OUT.
Ms.
Granger’s House bill is supported by
a bi-partisan and nationwide coalition
of 155 co-sponsors, with the support,
we are proud to say, of all the Oklahoma
delegation in the House. It is essentially
the same bill as was passed in the House
by unanimous consent in 2002. It has
been supported by Veterans’ groups throughout
the country. However, for reasons which
do not seem to us to be substantial,
it is now being held in a House Committee
on Financial Services and seems to be
set for death at the end of this congress.
The
failure to act seems to be more related
to process, not substance; more related
to inertia than intention. We have been
told the failure to act is premised
on a desire by Congress to limit such
recognitions to two per year (a hard
explanation to fathom when the Congress
has already passed three this year and
the House stands poised to give the
same recognition to Margaret Thatcher,
the former British prime minister).
We have been told the bill needs more
co-sponsors, in spite of the fact that
recognition of the Navajo Code Talkers
(an act we fully and unconditionally
support) was passed with less than half
the number of co-sponsors on our bill.
It appears that the real reason for
failure to act is more a lack of giving
this act regarding our Veterans priority
and a place on the schedule.
We
thank our supporters, our delegation,
for the unwavering support they have
given us, and we thank our many co-sponsors
and supporters from around the Country.
We want to make plain that this is not
a matter of philosophy or politics –
it is a matter of heart and soul, a
matter of pride, not just for Native
Americans, but for all Americans, especially
those who have served in uniform.
We
do know that the failure to act has
had, and will have, a real impact on
those associated with these brave deeds.
Sadly, none of the Code Talkers of the
Choctaw Nation survived to hear their
deeds celebrated publicly. When they
died, the use of Native languages as
code for the military was still largely
a secret, hostage to a possible future
need for similar service.
Although
I never had the fortune of meeting any
of the Choctaw Code Talkers of the First
World War, I was honored to know one
of the tribe’s WWII Code Talkers, Schlicht
Billy. Schlicht was in the 180th, and
participated in the landing of Anzio,
liberation of Rome and invasion of southern
France. Schlicht Billy participated
in an event held November 3, 1989 at
the Oklahoma State Capitol when the
government of France presented the Choctaw
Nation the “Chevalier de l’Order National
du Merite” in recognition of the important
role of the WWI Code Talkers. The tribe
has also honored these 18 men, by a
beautiful granite monument inscribed
with their names at the entrance to
the Tribal Capitol Grounds at Tuskahoma,
Oklahoma.
However,
when the bill was first introduced in
Congress, in 2001, several Code Talkers
from other Tribes, including Sioux and
Comanche, were alive. On the floor of
the House in 2002, Ms. Granger cited
the service of Charles Chibitty, the
last remaining Comanche Code Talker,
and asked for passage, so he would receive
the medal while alive. Alas, Mr. Chibitty
died in 2005, honored by native tribes,
and by his colleagues and fellow veterans,
but unsung by the Nation he had so proudly
served.
Other
Code Talkers have also passed on in
recent years. We are aware of only one
remaining Code Talker from World War
II, Mr. Clarence Wolfguts, a Sioux from
South Dakota. Let us not wait until
he also passes on, until it is too late
to see the pride in his eyes, and our
own, when he receives the honor he deserves.
As for our Choctaw Tribal Code Talkers
and those of other Tribes, we look toward
the families, the children, the grandchildren
with pride and hope for recognition.
We
know that it is sometimes easy to lose
sight of what is important to any one
group, but as we come closer to Veteran’s
Day, we call for swift passage. If foreign
governments can recognize the bravery
and sacrifice of our soldiers, than
it is time for the United States Congress
to do likewise. WE proudly tell of the
deeds and history of our Code Talkers,
American soldiers every one. WE will
not let these events be forgotten. WE
ask all Americans of good heart to join
with us. This is an American story.
Article
from the Bishinik About the Code Talker
http://www.thunderpeople.com/html/bishinik.htm
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