We Must Take Mount Austen: December 1942 to February 1943: Guadalcanal
- Nez and his buddies are exhausted on the front. They've been battling the Japanese for weeks now, and some of the guys are going loony because the stress is getting to them.
- In December of 1942, the Marines of the 1st Division receive word that the 2nd Marine Division is on the way to Guadalcanal.
- The 1st Marine Division will be given a break—they'll get to go on R&R—rest and relaxation time in Australia. Yay! Nez and his Navajo buddies can't wait. They haven't had a break since boot camp.
- But hang on. Right before the 1st Division Marines are due to leave for R&R, the Navajos are told they can't go and bum on a beach in Australia, after all.
- Their mission is too critical. The Japanese haven't managed to crack the Navajo code, and the Marines need to keep using it when the new division arrives.
- Chester and the Navajo Marines watch their buddies of the 1st Division board ships for Australia. We can imagine how Chester and the other Navajo Marines left behind on Guadalcanal feel at this point. They probably want to cry.
- They have to stay behind to be pelted by Japanese bullets while their friends sip beers on a beach in Australia. Not fair.
- General Alexander Patch, the head of the 2nd Marine Division, arrives on Guadalcanal and orders an infantry division from the army to attack Gifu Ridge, a mountainous area southwest of Mount Austen.
- But the Americans are forced back down by the Japanese hiding out in the Ridge.
- The code talkers have a big role to play in this assault on Gifu Ridge. Each shot by the Americans is positioned using information transmitted by the code talkers.
- During a lull in the fighting, Chester chills in a foxhole with his buddy Roy. The two remember the grass, and the sheep, and the beautiful landscape of Navajo land back in the southwest.
- On January 4th, 1943, more American troops arrive to help out with the capture of the island from the Japanese.
- New code talker recruits also arrive, and Chester and Roy are each assigned a code talker rookie. Chester's new code talking partner is Francis Tsinajnnie.
- The 2nd Marine Division is assigned to take Galloping Horse ridge to the west of Mt. Austen. Gifu Ridge has finally been taken by the Americans, and the Japanese holed up in Mt. Austen have been cut off.
- Realizing that they're losing, the Japanese begin to evacuate their troops from the island.
- On February 9, 1943, the general in charge of the American troops officially reports that the island of Guadalcanal has been secured by the Americans. Hurrah!
March 1943 through October 1943: Guadalcanal
- Chester and his new partner Francis and Roy Begay and his new partner Roy Notah are working together as a team on the island.
- Soon, word arrives that the 2nd Marine Division is due for some R&R leave.
- Does that mean that our hard working, code talking Navajo Marines are finally going to get a break, too? After all, they were denied the first time around.
- Think again. The code talkers are told, once again, that they can't leave for R&R because they're needed on the island: the 3rd Marine division is arriving on Guadalcanal and would be training for an attack on the island of Bougainville.
- The code talkers would be needed for the invasion of Bougainville.
- Units of the 3rd Marine Division begin arriving in June of 1943. Now that the Japanese have left Guadalcanal, the Marines have time for things like fortifying their foxholes, watching films, and bathing.
- Oh wow, we'd forgotten about bathing. Those Marine's feet must smell like blue cheese.
- A couple of weeks after Guadalcanal has been secured, Melanesians, natives of the island of Guadalcanal, start coming out of their hiding places—some of them injured. The Marines help them out with treatment.