Pentagon Print Share
|
|
The Pentagon houses the Department of Defense, and is one of the largest office buildings in the world. The Pentagon offers tours to selected groups Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, excluding federal holidays. Tours fill up quickly, and reservations may be booked from 8 to 90 days in advance. Tours can be arranged directly through the Pentagon Tour Office using an online reservations system. New Mexicans might want to see: The Navajo Code Talkers Exhibit Navajo code talkers became an integral part of the United States World War II efforts after the bombing of Pearl Harbor made apparent the lack of effective encryption methods used by the armed forces. Despite attempts by the US to create an unbreakable code, Japanese intelligence intercepted and deciphered military communications. In 1942, Navajo tribe members began serving as United States Marine Corps secure Radio Operators, who became known as the Navajo Code Talkers. By 1945, about 500 Navajo tribe members served as US Marines, more than 400 of those as code talkers. Due to the effectiveness of this secret military code, their contribution to the US war effort remained classified until 1968. Obscured by twin veils of history and time, the code talkers went largely unrecognized until relatively recently. On September 17, 1992, an exhibit was dedicated to the Navajo code talkers at the Pentagon. The exhibit includes a display of photographs, equipment and the original code, along with an explanation of how the code worked. The Navajo code talker exhibit is a regular stop on the Pentagon tour. On April 12, 2000, Senator Bingaman introduced legislation, "Honoring the Navajo Code Talkers Act," which would award the Congressional Gold Medal to each of the 29 original code talkers and the Congressional Silver Medal to each subsequent code talkers. The President signed the Act into law on December 21, 2000.
|