[3] Sandoval took part in every Marine landing in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II from 1943 until 1945.
[3] Sandoval boarded a train to Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he was 17 years old, where he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1943.
[2] Sandoval's main mission was to remain behind the front lines in order to translate reports from two-man code talker teams in other parts of the battlefield.
[3] He managed to swim approximately 100 yards to the Iwo Jima beach, where he survived a constant barrage of shelling by the Japanese for the next twenty-four hours.
[2] Soon after his marriage, he took a job as a machinist at the Garrett AiResearch facility in Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked for 15 years.
[2] As an elderly man, Merril traveled across the country to share his personal story and experiences as a Navajo Code Talker with the US Marine Corps.
Merril Sandoval died on February 9, 2008, at the age of 82 at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.
[2] Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr. ordered flags to be flown at half staff from February 13 to 16 in his honor.