Navajo Mountain Alliance Church (Tonalea, Ariz.) mourned the loss of one of its own June 8, 2015, with the passing of Bahe Ketchum. He was 96. From the 1960s to 2015, Bahe served in many roles at the church, including elder, assistant pastor, secretary and treasurer, and board member.
Bahe’s children remember him as “a man of faith who never hesitated to share his love of God with others,” according to Navajo-Hopi Observer. The United States remembers him as a national hero.
As a Navajo Code Talker, Bahe was one of about 400 Navajos who successfully transmitted secret military messages in their native language to help win World War II. After surviving the Battle of Okinawa, he served in mainland China to assist with the surrender of the Japanese at Tsing Tao.
Bahe was about 18 or 19 years old when he ran into a U.S. Marine Corps officer. He and his friend Willard Neztsosie were in Phoenix, Arizona, at the time, about to catch a train, and the officer said, “You guys aren’t doing anything, so you should enlist.”
So they did.
Serving in the Sixth Marine Division from 1944 to 1946, Bahe reached the rank of private first class. He was stationed in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and worked for the headquarters during the war, transmitting and translating messages for generals, commanders, and top brass. He also fought in the battles of Guadalcanal and Tsingtao.
In his late teens, Bahe married, but his wife died giving birth. After returning from the war, he married Estella Neztsosie, who preceded him in death in 2006. Bahe had 10 children, 29 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren.