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Services held for Navajo Code Talker Chester Nez

Flags were lowered across New Mexico as family and friends gathered in Albuquerque for a funeral Mass to honor the last of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers.

Chester Nez died last week in Albuquerque. He was 93.

The Mass was held Tuesday morning in Albuquerque, with burial afterward at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

Gov. Susana Martinez called for flags to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sundown Tuesday. She calls Nez and his fellow Code Talkers true patriots who changed the course of history.

Nez and the others developed a code based on the Navajo language that confounded the Japanese during World War II. Another group of Navajos followed in their footsteps and about 30 of them are still living.