>> you this is the third annual gaithersburg book festival held on the gaithersburg city hall grounds. a wounded warrior, luis carlos montalvan. his book is "until tuesday". >> at drying for a free net touch. surveys are available at the side of the 10. enjoy the rest of your day at the festival. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] here are the best-selling nonfiction books according to "the new york times."

>> hello everybody, and welcome to the third annual gaithersburg book festival. my name is joe well and, and i'm a member of the book festival committee. gaithersburg is a vibrant, diverse city that celebrates its arts. we are pleased to bring you this event free of charge tank as to the generous support of our sponsors. a couple of quick announcements for the consideration of everybody. please silence any devices that

make any kind of noise, and in order to improve this event we need your feedback. surveys are available here at the information booth and on line at our web site. please take a couple of minutes to fill out the survey. you also enter yourself in a drawing by doing that. just a very quick sideline, the woman who was working on putting authors in hotel rooms and things like that who didn't have all the names of the books in front of her got an e-mail from this gentleman, saying that he needed housing for friday and saturday and tuesday. she got totally confused by that. what does that mean? finally she figured it out. so, luis carlos montalvan, our author, will be signing books immediately after this presentation. copies of his book are on sale at the politics and prose book tent. when i read former captain

montalvan's compelling in touching book, it occurred to me that the best way to make -- sometimes the best way to make the reader understand the impact of a very large event is to tell a very small story about one person's experience. whether or not you agree with our country's actions during the iraq war, reading this very personal story of one man and his dog journey through battles, physical wounds, dramatic brain injury and severe post-traumatic stress disorder will move you and change are thinking about our role in iraq and about the brave men and women who fought. for me this book not only gave me an understanding of the psychological price paid by our veterans and wounded warriors, but it helps me see how a relationship with a service dog can bring someone back from the

edge. it is a difficult story, but it moved me, made me cry and also made me smile. to give you an update, the paperback edition of "until tuesday" debuted on "the new york times" bestsellers list. the audio book has been nominated for a 2012 award and there is a movie in the works. former captain montalvan, along with tuesday, has completed his master's degree from columbia university in journalism and is working towards another masters in strategic and indication. they continue to travel and speak as passionate advocates for servicemembers and their families a month veterans and people with disabilities. i am honored and proud to introduce to you, former captain luis carlos montalvan and his service dog and loyal friend, tuesday. [applause]

>> thank you jo-ellen. thank you for that lovely introduction. thank you everyone for being here, and for those of you i'm going to raise my voice for a moment because today is armed forces day. [applause] and we need to take pause for that, especially on a day as gorgeous as today. thank you of course. it's great to be back in gaithersburg. i am from montgomery county, went to winston churchill high school and went to the university of maryland for undergraduate work. you know, traveled all over the

country and its nostalgic and wonderful to be home, mostly because of the people but also because of the environment. it's just wonderful to be here today. i acted like to thank my parents and of course my beloved tuesday, my service dog, my caretaker, my brother and in some ways my prosthetic, but my tuesday, my kindred spirits really, who saved my life, and while that may be the subtitle of the book, a wounded warrior and the golden retriever who saved him, some people think or

wonder if that is hyperbole, or they may ask, well, what did tuesday do? did he sniff out a bomb? did he, you know, pull you from a burning car or something of that sort. and i say, no, he does much more than that. he saves my life every day. he helps me physically and psychologically with a number of the wounds of war, and he helps me get up in the morning. he will retrieve my shoes and the things that i need so that i don't have to bend over and aggravate my back because i have a spinal cord injury. he helps me balance when i walk.

this handle you see here, i hold onto it when i descend stairs or declination's. before tuesday, i had issues with vertebra that would come on unexpectedly, particularly traversing stairwells. in fact i felt down a flight of stairs, subway stairs, in new york city and wrote my foot and knocked myself out. so physically he is an omnipresent, assistant. psychologically, he can do everything from wake me up i'm a nightmare, to a flashback. he alerts me to the onset of pronounced migraines. it may sound kind of gross, but

he will, before i know it sometimes, he will my eyelids and my forehead, because he can sense that i am hot, that my respirations -- he listens and watches my respirations. he can listen to my heartbeat, my palpitations. he smells of course perspiratios listening to my intellection, as he is right now, and so while he doesn't necessarily speak the same language that we do, he is looking over yonder. tuesday.

but people think -- people's tendencies are to think of k-9s as being less perceptive really than they truly are. as some of you know, there are dogs now doing everything from you know, doing everything from warning and alerting people who have epileptic seizures, to alerting them that their glycemic levels are low. we have insulin alert dogs. there are dogs now unbelievably that can even sniff cancer, and it's really only in recent years and i think the silver lining to the contemporary is, pardon the

pun, an explosion and assistance dogs helping mitigate peoples disabilities of all sorts, invisible and visible. i think it is a tremendous, tremendous era because unbeknownst to most people, the largest minority in the country is in fact people with disabilities. 55 million americans have disabilities, and that is growing because medical advancement is lengthening the time span of people's lives. so with that comes the need for mitigating those disabilities, be they physical or psychological, and dogs are becoming increasingly part of

that. i am very happy to say, not just because of the physical and psychological -- tuesday. not just because of the physical and psychological things that they mitigate but also because of the spiritual connection that they give us, be they pets or be they service dogs. tuesday and dogs like to say all across the nation, and in some cases across the world, are truly performing miracles for people, saving people's lives, and not just literally saving people's lives but i also mean saving the potential to pursue happiness, to fulfill one's hopes and dreams.

that is lifesaving, and what a gift, what a gift to have a beloved spirit that can love you unconditionally and ken physically, psychologically assist you in your day-to-day and with your hopes and dreams. i set it at the onset of the presentation, but i will say it again. thank you to our veterans, of whom there are 22.5 million in this country and of course their family members. most people i venture to say here today, throughout the fair, have had a relative, be they near or distant, serve their nation and preserve their

legacy, which is you. so, it is particularly special for tuesday and i to be here today turning armed forces day. yesterday we were at walter reed speaking and needing a number of our beloved wounded warriors and today later we will fly to california and spread some more love. because tuesday really is a big love. besides being a world-class smuggler -- [laughter] he is a big love. and i wanted to share something that recently, and you know it's amazing how we are these days with technology, this is a photograph --

tuesday. he wants to say hi to everyone and that is why he keeps coming here. he keeps asking me to select a wifi. this is a photograph that some of you may be able to see. he is asking for which wireless connection i want. i love to take photographs of tuesday all over the world, and this photograph was taken in brooklyn. and it was taken next to a sign, a very simple sign at a storefront. but, it was potentially, it it was so serendipitous because, what his son the chalkboard is what somebody had the thoughtfulness to do, and that is -- tuesday, good void, said. good boy.

stay. they have had the thoughtfulness to write down a manual camp's rules for happiness. i had never heard can't tm's philosophy or seen it on a chalk board before. as most of you know, e-mini will -- emanuel, a great philosopher who can should be did a lot toward life and the evolution of humanity. but, beautifully he wrote some rules of happiness and this person who rode on the chop word had again the thoughtfulness to write them down in three of all it ties sentences. the rules for happiness. the first one, something to do. you have to have something to

do. you have to have a purpose, to work, to be fulfilled some way. the second being, have someone to love. someone to love. and isn't that churck? and is in that true? and third, you have to have something to hope for. you have to be hopeful. because life is hard. something to do in the darkness that would become many of the ailments, afflictions that i felt after tours in iraq. i went into the depths of alcoholism, and i mean a lot, and it was really to deal with the symptoms of sleeplessness

and social agoraphobia which was a word the word i had never heard of, which is basically being reclusive, staying at home, away from people because of issues of trust. post-traumatic stress disorder really wreaks havoc on trust, and be at the trauma of a car accident, be it the trauma of a crime, be it the trauma of war, divorce, of the passing of a loved one, trauma is something that affects us all. that is actually one of the reasons why the book thankfully has resonated with people in touch people so, because all of us are affected i trauma. the letters we get. of course you get numerous letters from servicemembers,

veterans and their families but we get maybe more from those who have experienced trauma in one form or another. and when you are victimized by trauma, it is a dark place, it is a dark place. and well, humanity, it is sort of remarkable how the elixir of human history has been alcohol, way before prescription drugs came along 60 years ago. alcohol was and is the means to treating symptoms of trauma. i was consuming a liter or more a day off from, because i was

physically and psychologically in pain, and i couldn't get the help i needed medically. and there was also a lot of difficulty, as is the case with many people who experience trauma, with family members maybe not understanding, friends becoming alienated or estranged and thus, the trauma, the darkness of the trauma is that much more difficult. and so fast forwarding through that period into the light, because thankfully there is light and the light consumes the darkness, as john wrote.

tuesday was a huge part of that light, and i was mentioning earlier about trust wreaking havoc on a person's ability to live and to do anything really, trust being outside or trust that memories aren't going to calm consuming you, afflicting you with panic attacks and other symptoms. this bright light in the form of an e-mail to leave it or not, like manna from heaven, because i learned that, in a small brooklyn apartment, i learned

with a glass of rum on my desk, that there were program's coming on line to partner wounded warriors with highly trained assistance dogs. i was an able-bodied warrior, you know. i knew nothing about service dogs or what a service dog was, but no sooner had i gotten that e-mail tonight google voraciously everything i could and that applied vigorously to put the program. i knew, having had a dog -- we had a wonderful giant schnauzer whose name was max, who is my best friend, and i knew that program was for me. i knew it was for me. [laughter] that's okay, but thank you. tuesday loves to, he likes to

naught gnaw at shrubbery and flowers, as he listens because right now actually he is not whimpering right now, which one might think, some of you might think it's sad that he wants to say hello to you. he wants to snuggle with you which he does on command. but he is not whimpering because he knows that i am okay. he is paying attention to me. he has consumed himself with some nice -- what are those? the kind of look like rhododendron or poinsettia. tuesday brings a smile to my face 100 times or more a day. he is so funny, mostly because he is disobedient.

[laughter] and he does it by design. he does it because he knows what laughter is and he knows about what that state is, and he wants me to be in that state and others to be in that state. he wants others to be happy so the clowns around with me. sometimes it's not so funny initially. for example this morning, i asked him to get my shoes like i do most mornings. he went as if he was going to get my shoes and well, he brought back a flip-flop. i by said tuesday we have to get to the gaithersburg look festival. so he goes back and he brings his brush. this is this is a dog that had two years of training prior to being partnered with me on this dog knows, he knows exactly what go get my shoes means.

so go get my shoes i say with my head in my palms, and he goes and gets his antler bone and his tail is wagging. a big smile with a bone in his mouth. all i have to do is laugh because he knows i'm a little bit tense because we had to be here on time. finally, after i started laughing he goes and gets my shoes. but, he is such a happy spirit. everywhere we go, people say -- sometimes it takes me out because a nice-looking girl would say hey abie.

the guy in me will say, is she talking to? [laughter] oh it's tuesday. [laughter] know but its okay because of course there is a reason why tuesday is faces on the book. it is the old line, he has the face for television and i have the face for radio. [laughter] it is perfectly okay. when our neighbors in new york city, they all yell out, hi tuesday. it's okay that they don't know my name. it's just high tuesday -- hi tuesday. when we go to starbucks or any independent coffee house, they also have the same scheme of getting your coffee now like the

barista counter, the language, mocha, nonfat no whip. and they will ask for the name of course. it and i will say tuesday. they will get me quizzically. what kind of a person names their son tuesday? and some of them look at me funny and other smile and get it, but it's really great when the barista who served the coffee, once it's done, are you nuzzling me? thank you, tuesday. when the barista shouts out loud to 50 customers in the shop, tuesday! [laughter] and the whole place looks up and

stares at me, like i have horns growing out. as if they don't stare anyway because tuesday, at first when you get partnered with an assistant dog, dog storm normally go, so people look at you like, sometimes they look at you like your frankenstein and other times they look at you, they are looking at me, trying to see if i am lying. i have even had people on the new york subway grab me which is a little unnerving to say the least. it's not as though i don't have an assistant dog even if i were lying, you know. do you serve as service the human too? my goodness, people to be that

way. until then they start shouting out u.s. well. they think you are deft too. hey, can i help you into the subway? watch your step. thanks. by the way, nice shirt. [laughter] but you know, where did you get that? did you get that at macy's? i would like to open it up to questions because i'm rambling now, but please, any questions about the book? >> just out of curiosity, can he get on the airplane with you? >> the question is, can tuesday get on the airplane with me? of course and we leave out of dulles and 5:30 if anybody has a helicopter. he sits with me, in front of me.

we generally said that the bulkhead, because there is more space there. a 220-pound, six-foot two-inch guide and an 80-pound holder retriever, it's funny i think. and tuesday -- their crew on the airplane always say you know, he is the best passenger ever, ever. there are babies crying and boisterous humans and one lady once said to us, a flight attendant, she said it's nice to have a corporative pat on our flight. tuesday said thanks. question?

>> how did you get the name tuesday? that is a good question. it is a bit of a mystery and it's in the book. i don't mean to be that kind of author. [laughter] actually it is a mystery. a donor to pay for his training, because his training was quite costly, was able to name him and did so anonymously and chose the name tuesday. so we don't know. might be one day we will find out the answer to that. but it is a great name, tuesday. it is uncommon and it is also great from a practical perspective because as you can imagine when you have an assistance dog traveling everywhere, you don't necessarily want everyone to know your dogs name. here tuesday, here tuesday. that is not helping me and then

i fall and you know, it's not a happy day. which is the reason some of you are wondering why server stocks are not to be petted in public unless the handler says okay but tuesday is a good name because i can shorten it to two and i'm giving it away on c-span now. [laughter] fortunately most people don't pay attention to me. and so two, they think it's a command. nobody will think it's a name so if i say two, heal or side, two, two. his name is two. one, three, four. i can shorten it and people don't know what i'm doing as i am talking with my best friend. question?

sir. [inaudible] >> yes i am was in the army for 17 years, and actually, no. i wasn't able to remain on active duty with my wounds and injuries. i mean, i did. i was wounded actually in my first tour in 2003, and as the majority of warriors do, unfortunately the media and others, leaders etc., would have you think that wounded warriors are visibly wounded but you have to meet missing an arm or a leg to be wounded. i would like to dispel that vehemently.

most warriors, most veterans of all wars have an invisible wounds, invisible wounds. while i have many a friend who has a missing arm or leg or both, you know, 1900 veterans of iraq and afghanistan are amputees. there are 2.25 million now servicemen and women who have served abroad, and one third to half of those are injured or wounded in some way, so you do the math.