Born on what would become Veterans Day in 1922, Akee hailed from Coal Mine Canyon, Arizona on the Navajo reservation. At the outset of American involvement in World War II he set out to join the United States Marine Corps and was crestfallen when he couldn’t pass the physical. One year later, in 1943, he happened to meet one of the original group of 29 Code Talkers who helped recruit him. This time he passed the physical.
Akee would later say, “I didn't plan on being in the war; I just wanted to be in the service – that was in my mind since I was very young.” Following boot camp and the grueling Navajo Communication School, Akee was assigned to the 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division – a unit that would place him in the heart of the Pacific War. He participated in the battles on Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima and saw many harrowing sights along the way.
From being mistaken for a Japanese soldier, to breaking down under incessant shelling and hurriedly transmitting a decoded message regarding an impending banzai charge, Akee was traumatized by his experiences. Landing in the third wave at Iwo Jima, the sight of so many dead Marines sprawled across the beach haunted him until his dying day. He also learned that one of his brothers was killed in action.
After the war, Akee worked for a railroad in Santa Fe before returning to the reservation. Wherever he went, the war went with him, and he struggled for many years with PTSD and alcoholism. When a doctor told him he had potentially fatal liver disease, Akee stopped drinking. He also experienced a radical conversion to Christianity and eventually pastored a church in the Assemblies of God denomination. 
In 1988, Akee received the Congressional Silver Medal from President George H. W. Bush. He lived out his days on the Navajo reservation, and when his house fell into disrepair the tribe assembled a group to renovate it for him. He passed away on October 14, 2016, at the age of 93. His remains were interred in Section 1, Site 258 of the Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Camp Navajo.

Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Camp Navajo

Excerpts from an interview with Dan Akee is featured on page 31 of "America’s Unseen Soldiers" a lesson plan from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Constantly amazed at the honor and abilities of the Native American Code Talkers.   So many lives saved by you unselfish sacrifice. 

DAN AKEE

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