c-span 3 created by cable tv industry and funded by you. >> next we will hear the story of sergeant stubby the first k-9 given a rank in the u.s. armed forces. stubby served for the 102nd infantry in france during world war i. over the course of 17 battles alerted soldiers to incoming german attacks. he was later received by three american presidents this event was hosted by the kansas city public library and the national world war i museum.

>> tonight, we will hear the biography of a brave and invaluable soldier who played a significant part in world war i. he could not write, he could not speak, and he could not hold a gun. however, his loyalty and abilities were never in question, and his inspiration is legendary. stubby the war dog survived the horrors of the trenches and became a war hero. this evening, the story of this very special dog and his soldier. ann bausum is an award-winning children's author who captures characters whether they fly under the historical radar or rise to the top of recognition. i can only imagine recognition. i can only imagine what

>> hello, and thank you for coming out. i appreciate the work take the -- the work done to make this visit possible. i would like to start by thanking the kansas city public library and the national world war i museum for sponsoring my visit here. i am very excited to be in kansas city, talking with you all about this historical figure, and retracing some steps a little bit. i have been doing that over the years, following stubby all the places he has been, and one of the places he has been is kansas city. i will talk a little bit more about that as the evening goes on. let's go to the pictures. i brought lots of historical images to share with you. i will tell you a little bit about my own background. the story of stubby himself, some of the stories behind the creation of the books i have written about him, one for adults and one for young readers. we will save some time at the end for questions as well. first, i want to make sure we

are in on the same page in terms of terminology. when we are talking about dough boys, we do not mean this guy. the american soldiers who went over to fight in europe during world war i were nicknamed doughboys, and stubby spent a lot of time with them in the trenches. and as i said, i have these two books about him. his story is one of a number i have written about him over the years. i have come to see myself as a storyteller, someone who tells -- takes true stories from our nation's past, and forms them for readers. one of the stories i will start

with is my own ideas about coming and author. if you had asked me in fourth grade, what do you want to do when you grow up, i would have said, i would like to be a children's book author, not really knowing that might someday come true. it is not surprising that i chose to write about history, because i grew up in a very historic town, lexington, virginia, which has a lot of civil war history. in my childlike understanding of the world, i decided the way you could measure how historic you were was by the body count of famous people and historical figures buried in your town, and we had a lot of them. we had the grave for lee's horse, traveller. also it's of animals were important. stonewall jackson and other confederate generals buried in

lexington. when his horse, who was also famous, died, rather than burying him, some enterprising soul decided to stop him and put him in the museum. this was one of my favorite museum artifacts. with nothing better to do on my meanders home. history, by now, was flowing through my blood. as i got older, i started thinking of other ways to write. i definitely retained that interest in history. it was not until i was quite a

bit older -- i majored in wisconsin, and it all sorts of professional writing. but it was not until i got older and had kids and started reading all the great children's literature in our public library, like you may do yourself -- i reconnected with that genre and thought, i should see if i can write for children. i began experimenting. my kids are no grown-ups. this is a long ongoing experiment. they are in college. about stubby. that helps you understand how i got to this stage. let me give you the nutshell description of stubby. if you have not read either of these books, maybe this will encourage you to do so. even if you are over the age of 14 -- there is lots of crossover potential here. here is stubby and his favorite doughboy, james robert conroy. the two of them originated in connecticut, on the east coast, the town of new britain.

that is where conroy was born. he and stubby connected after woodrow wilson -- i know you have been studying world war i with great enthusiasm. even though the fighting broke out in 1914, it was not until 1917 that the united states made the commitment to send troops to europe to join the fight. there were these regional training camps set up around the country, including in new haven. on the campus of yale university, some of the training took ways inside the athletic

stadium and the playing fields. there were camps set up with tense -- tents and parade grounds. his was a great place, if you were a dog, to hang out. there was a lot of cooking. there were a number of stray dogs that were attracted to this encampment, including stubby, and it did not take long before stubby and conroy had connected. we had private conroy, his sister, and look who is already in the picture. we have not been able to identify whether this is his brother, conroy's brother. stubby was very much attached to conroy. even before it had come time to ship out for europe. when it did come time, stubby went along.

he was more or less assisted by his friends in the camp when the tents were struck and the soldiers climbed aboard a troop train late at night to head to virginia, where they were going to catch their transport ship over to europe. and when they got to newport news, it was a little trickier to figure out how to get the dog on board, but there was some time before they had to ship out. stubby was smuggled aboard with some connections conroy had made with one of the crewmembers on the ship. he was not on board, hidden in a coal bin, i'm not until the ship was well out to sea did stubby materialize. at some point, stubby was

discovered, and by not just the other fellows, but the commanding officer, which presented a little problem, because the dog was not necessarily supposed to be there. in fact, there had been orders he understood bugle call.

he certainly understood what that one wants, which was dinner time. he understood parade formations and military marching and so forth that the soldiers did. he knew that when the commanding officer showed up, dilatory protocol required -- military protocol required that if you were a dog you needed to sit down and rewrote on your front paws and raise your right pop up to your eye and look very soberly at this commanding officer until he returned your salute. and then you had given the due respect. having done that, the commanding

officer said, fine. he is our mascot. you can keep him. they get to france and there is more training. but before long, they are loaded into boxcars and troubling to the war front -- traveling to the war front. they get to this territory in france which has been overrun by german forces. by this time, it's february 1918, so almost a year after wilson has asked congress to declare war in the fight, and they are there in the phase of the warfare known as trench warfare, and when they are not fighting, they have these bunkers that they are able to

take shelter in, and we actually have a sketch that one of private conroy's friends had made, showing probably conroy and one of their underground bunkers. if you look real closely, look who is in the cupboard. see that. probably stubby, although he is not officially labeled. when they are not in the bunkers, they are above ground, and here is a photograph. the trench was this little bit of cov land because it was no place for anyone to try to hang out and stay alive. here you had, for example, the german trenches. we've got the allied trenches, and lots of crossfire going back and forth. machine guns, artillery guns, shells of all different sizes,

including very large shells inspired by the naval guns, also called railway guns, because in order to get them in position to fire, the troops literally had to lay flat on railroad tracks to draw the munitions forward. ok, this is going on pretty much constantly. the barrage is back and forth, and soldiers become adept at being just about anything in the official rat patroller. one of his duties was to capture the rats that were running around in the trenches. he sat guard with the soldiers. when someone was doing guard duty, it was not uncommon for stubby to cuddle up to him and keep him company on a cold night. perhaps his most useful skill at this point in the war was that he learned very early on how to detect when a gas attack was about to occur. anyone who has studied up a little bit about world war i knows that this was -- there was a very serious use of chemical

warfare where canisters filled with poisonous gas were being fired at the opposing sides, and these could cause serious discomfort, serious injury, even death, so soldiers had gas masks that they would put on to protect them. once stubby got to the front, conroy helped to arrange for him to get a gas mask eerie at a lot of animals had them because otherwise they could be injured just like the people. so stubby could detect probably with a combination of sound because dogs have such a cute, excellent hearing, and smell, could tell that a gas canister was going to be fired. he became quite valuable for his ability to do that and even was credited on one occasion with going through some of the

bunkers underground and discovering a soldier who had fallen asleep and had not heard any of the alarms and woke the soldier up in time for him to put his gas mask on so he was credited with saving this man's life. when you are in the trenches, people are getting injured. stubby got injured at one point during a serious battle in april might in 18 -- april 1918. stubby had climbed out of the trench and started to reconnoiter to see what the situation was, and then another shell came over and exploded, and pieces of that metal casing of the shell hit the dog in his chest, and he seemed to be quite seriously wounded, and conroy

hospital, perhaps one like this one. these are pretty simple establishments. you can see here they even have grass floors or dirt floors. these are not regulation hospitals like we would find in our community. nonetheless, stubby was sent to this hospital, was beautifully stitched up, and spent about three weeks recovering but did recover and went back and rejoined the troops, and here he is reunited with conroy in june 1918. by now, the warfare is shifting, and the germans are beginning to make one last attempt to press forward towards paris, and

americans are joining the french in trying to push them back, and they are now fighting in this open country with wheatfields not only does he help to protect

the soldiers who are with him, but also the citizens who live there. so now he has got all these fans, too. already, the soldiers are good friends with him, but now he's got all these fans, and the women decide that he is such a soldier, this dog, he needs a uniform. that is literally where stubby's little military coat comes from. the women made him this jacket, and you may be able to see there is embroidery on that that

explains he is in the 102nd infantry, and he has a yankee division patch on, an official one just like the fellows in the army do. and, you know, special military buttons and so forth. he is truly a war dog now. he has got his own uniform, and he keeps learning. he keeps getting new skills. when the troops are pressing forward against the germans and they are fighting back and forth in the midst of this retreat and combat, study comes -- becomes a rescue dog. this was a job that other dogs had on the battlefield, too, t or alive, -- they have that sense that says a person is alive -- so they were able to pick out the people that needed

to be taken care of first. stubby and the other dogs could find people who were hidden in the tall grass or the wheat and were out of sight. they would carry little supplies that if the soldiers were not too badly wounded, they might be able to take out some bandages and help to dress themselves. not content to just be a rescue dog, stubby also started gardening -- regarding prisoners of war, some german prisoners of war that had been captured as the allies are moving forward pursuing the german troops, and stubby had -- as any soldier who has served in combat will tell you, military dogs developed all kinds of instincts and experience based on what they have observed during the war, so stubby was able to tell the difference between an american and a german. probably mostly by smell. if you think about it, each army is eating its own diet and so forth. there will be a different body owner associated with that. so stubby new very well even before he started guarding germans, what a german look like and smelled like. he gained particular frame in september 1918 when he captured

a german all by himself. the details of this are a little bit in dispute, but what is clear is that on one evening, stubby was out on one of his little prowls. he liked to do that. every now and then, he would go

awol, as the soldiers would joke, and then show up again. he would go out on little patrols just like his own little garden out. he was out on a patrol and came across this german. some people said he was a german spy trying to figure out where the american and french troops were. others say he is just lost, under so much confusion, and the troops were moving around so much the soldier had gotten dislocated from his unit. in any case, stubby knew he did not belong where he was and began barking. the soldiers told him to stop doing that in start trying to charm him with german doggie charming speech, which does not have much of any impact on stubby, except probably to make him bark longer. so the soldier gives up on getting the dog to be quiet and decides he better run, and that does not work pretty well either because we all know dogs are pretty weak runners. stubby is not a very big dog, maybe about this tall. he takes off after this guy. he grabs a big hunk of the guys pants and probably a big hunk of the guy, too, at which point he says whatever the german form of "i surrender" is, and because of a they'd know stubby is up to something, and when they get

there, they discover he has captured his own soldier. if he was not already held in high esteem, he certainly is now. one of the traditions of the battle was that if you captured someone, you got to keep war booty. if they had won medals, those became yours. and a case, this particular soldier that stubby had captured had won a german iron cross, which was one of the distinguished medals that would have been awarded two german soldiers, so naturally, by right 02 stubby -- and he does have a uniform after all -- so this picture is taken sometime later, but i will just point out where they decided to hang the iron cross. you can just see it hanging, in this not very polite position on the back of the dog's uniform. so stubby has one more

distinction that has been added to him. of course, the topic of stubby is cheerful in the context of a war, but there is a war going on, and this all kinds of destruction, and of course, there are deaths and much sadness and trauma associated with the war as well, but it does come to an end, and there's great jubilation on armistice day, november 11, 1918, when the guns stopped firing. there is a cease-fire that marks the end of the fighting and the beginning of the process that will lead to a negotiation for a peace treaty. so the war has ended.

stubby has survived. conroy has survived. over time, the process begins of getting the soldiers home. this time, stubby does not have to be smuggled aboard the ship. he is considered a veteran of the war just like everyone else and is able to march on board the ship and when he is off of the ship is considered a war hero along with everyone else, and you can see him here in a parade.

this was in new orleans some years after the war. the dog was so clever he was actually put in charge of leading different units of the parade. who knew how to follow a color guard. he knew the various commands to stop and start. he knew when you went past the stand and you work given the

the american military soldiers in europe, was even asked and gladly bestowed a metal on stubby that had been created to honor the dog by the humane society, and so this apparently is the only time general pershing pinned the medal on a dog, but i think he is doing it

a great dignity, and stubby is putting up with it as well. there were other dogs that want to be as famous as stubby. this is sergeant major jiggs, the mascot of the marine corps, but he was not old enough to have been in world war i, so he really -- and he did not have any particular skills. he did have a cool hat, and he was dropdead ugly, but aside from that, he and stubby were, you know -- although they knew what another, they would occasionally show up at the same offense together -- stubby cast a much longer shadow band sergeant major jakes. they would compete for headlines from time to time. coolidge had all kinds of pets at the white house and was a big fan of boston terriers, and stubby was somewhat related to

the boston breed, but stubby really eclipsed all of these dogs, too, and was so well-known and so well regarded that he actually met oath of these presidents as well as woodrow. he met woodrow wilson while the soldiers were still in europe and wilson had come over to negotiate the peace and reviewed a unit of the yankee division and was introduced to stubby and later on, stubby visited the white house. harding was president. he was invited to visit the president when calvin coolidge was president. he was constantly in the news. he was front-page news in "the new york times," "the washington post." when he traveled, people recognized him. we think about how the population knows the president's dog or socks the cat from the clinton era or whatever -- it's the same sort of idea with stubby. well, stubby was not content to just retire from the military, so he picked up a new career when he came home, and he became a football mascot. he has his own little uniform, and he would come out during after it and push it around with his head, and he thought that was great sport, and he would just zigzag around the field chasing after this football until someone told him to stop. he did that for several years. one of the things i came across when i was doing research was that this custom of having this interruption in the game at halftime with the dog coming out and so forth being the origination of the halftime show. since stubby seems to a done so much else, i think we can give

him credit for inventing the halftime show, too. it seems completely plausible. again, to emphasize how famous the dog was, here he is even having his portrait painted. people could not get enough of him. so let's take a little break. all talk about where the story came from, how it became a book. or two books. i've got additional photos that will take you back in time to stubby's lifetime and his visit to kansas city. like most people, i had never heard of stubby, and i found out

about him when i was doing research for "unraveling freedom," which was about world war i and life at home while the fellows were overseas. there was an illustration in the book that i needed to write a caption for, and this is a piece of art that was created before we had joined the war. you can see the various combatants being personified by dogs. here is america -- "i'm neutral but i'm not afraid of any of them," and there's this american bull terrier. i'm not much of a dog person. i just decided to do a google search of american bull terriers, and instead of finding

anything hopeful about american bull terriers, i start finding all these weird websites that are about unusual dogs, including this dog name sergeant stubby who has this pedigree that is unbelievable, and i assume it is a joke. like those websites i'm always warning schoolkids that they have to be careful of the internet. i just figured somebody has made all this up, and then i clicked on the smithsonian, and there is this object record about stubby. it turns out that at the end of

stubby's life, he was preserved, and if you go to washington, d.c., you can see the taxidermy remains of this famous dog. i was on a deadline. i knew i had found a really interesting story, and i did not want to forget about it, so i made a note about it, and over the years, i kept nurturing the idea. what's not to take seriously about a stuffed dog. over time, that became the idea for stubby. the research for this book was problematic because there was not a lot information out there about stubby. a good deal of it seemed to not be accurate. i did know that because the dog

was at the smithsonian, that was a good place to start, and i also knew that there had been there had been a scrapbook kept about stubby by his owner or his companion, robert conroy. on two different occasions, i visited the smithsonian and made a careful record of the scrapbook, and it's an incredible scrapbook full of photographs. giant old-fashioned archival page scrapbooks.

souvenirs from their travels while they were on furlough in europe. this is monte carlo. you can see little train tickets that conroy had to buy to allow him to take a dog onto the various means of conveyance that they would use as they traveled around. stubby was on broad bill after he came back to the united states, and there is a flyer about that in the invitation for him to come and be on stage. this was kind of like opening two in common's to to find your way into the world of stubby. the scrapbook is filled with newspaper clippings. very few of them are helpfully

labeled. most of them look like this so that you have no idea where it was published, what eight it was published, but that is ok because then there are these little treasures like the ymca membership card for stubby, making him a special life member, good for three bones a day. for good measure, it is also good for a place to sleep. when news broke about this id card, this membership card that had been created for the dog, this actually created a little bit of ill will. one of the pages of the scrapbook has a couple of notices in it that were letters to the editor from veterans complaining about how honestly,

it is not on display with the dog because the fabric it is made from is very thin, and these metals -- medals are quite heavy, so if that jacket were to hang forever on that dog, eventually, the leather would tear, so this is stored very carefully in an archival container, but i was fortunate to be able to work with curators at the smithsonian who let me see the jacket. the adult book actually has a very detailed listing of all of the items that are shown on the jacket. if you look right here, this big blob of gold is the metal that purging -- the medal that pershing pinned on the dog. i visited the east coast because a lot of stubby material was there. even in west haven, very modest material, but this is a place filled with people who have not forgotten about stubby. this is actually where that portrait is that i showed you. the yale univby -- conroy and stubby would have met and trained together. i visited graves, looked were conroy had been born, all the things you are trying to do to understand better about the family. there is a place called the army war college in pennsylvania, which has exhibits, but also a fantastic archive, and i found a lot of great photographic kinds of images that are here and credited in the book as illustrations for this history.

ok, what are some of those pictures. let's look at some of the other dogs that were in the war. this is not stubby, but this gives you an idea of a dog with a gas mask and a soldier with a gas mask, too, for that matter. the french, germans, and english all had dogs with official duties. the united states did not develop a canine corps until well into world war ii. it was not uncommon for dogs to pull carts during the war as well pulling supplies, pulling ammunitions, etc. these are some red cross workers, and here's an example

of another rescue dog. you can see an example here with some first division troops. these are french troops. they have a mascot not nearly as well behaved as stubby. people did not draw the line at dogs. this is a wild boar. for this motorcycle unit, american troops and this is fanny the goat, who was one of the mascots also for the yankee division in the 101st infantry. truly, stubby and fanny the goat

would have -- maybe not liked one another, but known one another. some pictures here can help to illustrate what it was like after stubby and conroy came back. they really were inseparable. it did not take long for conroy to muster out of his uniform, but it was not uncommon for stubby to put his back on. soon after the war, conroy started law school. he studied at georgetown, which was what stubby was mascot in at those universities. the pair shared a house early on

in the 1920's with a group of guys and veterans, all who had known stubby during the war. it must've been a lot of fun for them to be there together. there were constantly reunions after the war, groups of soldiers -- these are from connecticut. you can see stubby here. here is conroy. this is general edwards, who was the leader for most of the war of the yankee division. this is why stubby is to kansas city. not surprisingly, he comes in 1921, which if you are up on your local history, you know that is the year that the ground is dedicated for the liberty memorial, and the american legion holds its convention in kansas city in conjunction with that to take part in the celebration, and participants are given badges. here is stubby's kansas city badge on his uniform, so you all are represented on that official

article of clothing, and there are pages and articles about this visit. this one has some artifacts on it, including the guest pass that was written out for robert conroy and stubby, our famous war dog, while he was at the american legion convention in kansas city. over here, we have the menus from the train trip when conroy and stubby were traveling by train. aside from the shock of the prices, i am also interested in all of the hunks of meat that stubby could have chosen from. so i'm sure he was not unsaid --

unfed during those travels. these are just a couple of scenes, and you have seen many, many more of these locally of the crowds that turned out for the plays, and stubby was right there leading parts of the connecticut soldiers, who had come to participate in this great ceremony. this was one of the highlights post-war for the entire endea building he is living and has caught fire, and it has to be evacuated. you can see this girl has very wisely brought her parakeet. this mother, of course, remembers to bring her baby. conroy, when he leaves, brings stubby. in 1950 four, stubby is not alive. if you look at him, he looks

odd, and that's because he is stuffed, but this is one of conroy's most prized friends and possessions. soon after, stubby pays extra. just vicariously through some random clippings i was sent by a librarian, i was able to find some information that led me to a grandson. this is conroy late in life and his grandson, and i became friends with kurt. after i have gained his trust, he tells me the story of the blue samsonite suitcase. he says, "well, you know, my grandfather, new the end of his life gave me a suitcase that had all this stuff in it about

stubby, and i haven't seen it for a while. i think it's at my sisters house in washington. we should go there sometime and find it." so we make these elaborate plans a few months later to go to washington, d.c., to find the blue samsonite suitcase. it turns out not to be as easy as that, and the suitcase has long since been empty, and the suitcase is in a box. i showed up. i'm so excited. we are not finding it. finally, at about 11:30 at night, we find a box in the garage, and we start pulling out all of these treasures from -- these are the most cherished things, pictures that help to keep him connected to this friend that he credited with getting him through the war, and then things that helped us understand his story. his enlistment records. this is where we find that

photograph that no one remembered. it had never been published before. it was published in my book. the original photograph of stubby in his uniform. the last story i want to tell you is the story of an and her doll -- ann and her dog. not since i was a little kid had i been very close to dogs because all of the dogs i had ever known in my family had all died tragic that, starting with the family dog that was hit by a car, until i had pretty much become a cat person. i actually thought that would be helpful because i would be very impartial when i was writing about this famous dog. the more i wrote about him, the more i thought are cool -- i thought dogs are cool.

one day i came down from working on stubby and i looked out of my backyard, and there was a dog. straight out. -- stray dog like, "lady, you are asking for a dog. here i am." so i actually took this volunteer to the shelter, and immediately, he was adopted by somebody who probably was a much better person to take care of a dog. i have my stuffed stubby that keeps me company, and you have the book. i would be delighted to answer questions. you need to come to the microphone so that everyone can hear you and your questions are carefully recorded. go ahead. [applause] >> thank you. in the photo where pershing is pending on the award to the dog, sitting where we were, there was a young man just beaming --

>> that was conroy. i meant to point that out. >> do you know who the person was in back looking right at the camera. >> there was an act shea there that was a member of pershing's staff -- there was an attache. there's a woman who looks pretty pleased, too, and she was a member of the humane society who helped to sponsor the award. thank you. >> why was there not any color in the photos is your question. -- is there any color. >> why was there not any color in the photos is your question. there were a few people who had figured out how to take photographs and hand color them, and that was a very time-consuming process, and the technology had not been invented

yet that would make beautiful color photographs like we had today and something like digital lower this mic so our -- our young people are easier to hear. oh, perfect. thank you. thanks very much. >> do you have any more of those -- >> oh, i know. i'm at my publisher saying you've got to manufacture these. i have a group of writing friends that we get together once a month and we share our work with one another. when one of us has a book come out, we celebrate. and they celebrate by making me my own stubby. and, look they even put the iron cross in the right place. [ laughter ] >> and so, yeah, this should be the prototype. you're absolutely right. yes. >> how long did it take you to make each book. >> how long did it take me to

make each book? i lived in the land of stubby for two years and having written -- first i wrote the children's book. i didn't know that i was going to be asked to write an adult book until i pretty much finished the children's book. and back in the beginning, the boston terriers were bigger. they didn't necessarily all look black and white the way we tend to think of them looking now.

so he's pretty close to a boston terrier. but he might have a little bit of bulldog mixed in and maybe some other flavors just for fun. thanks. >> do you know precisely why stubby's name was stubby? >> okay. this is an excellent question. you're helping to remind me of all of the things i should have said earlier. do you want to help me guess? if you take a good look at stubby, what do you think it might be? yeah, he had a very short tail. he actually at some point his tail had been longer and breeders will sometimes shorten tails to make dogs look a certain way and stubby's tail was very short so he has a stubby tail and he became stubby. news reporters didn't always get the facts right back then. sometimes things get mixed up. so i would come across newspaper

articles when stubby was alive and they would call him stuffy hubby, sometimes the articles would refer to him as a she even though he was a boy. but stubby because of the short tail, yes. >> after he got hurt, did he make it? >> tid e e he make it after he got hurt? so he was pretty shaken up. and i don't know if he was unconscious. no one wrote that down anywhere. that's if he was, that fact had e has been lost. and when he was taken away in the ambulance, the soldiers, his friends, con roy, they didn't know if he was going to make it. but, eventually, he did recover.

>> did le get hurt? >> he got hurt when this artillery shell, or maybe it was a grenade, people argue a little bit about that. exploded. and these shells are sort of like that, too. only they're more pointed like a rock et.

>> how injured was fluffy injured? um shrapnel out or just leave it in? >> that's a good question. was it taken out? yes, it was and stitched up. then the wounds were stitched up

again. >> how did the war find the dog? >> ask that again. >> how did the war find the dog? >> what do you mean by that? you mean like how did the dog and the war end up mixed up together? you know, sometimes things just work out that you don't everyone plan or imagine. the dog just happened to be born at a time when a war was going on. he happened to fall in love with and be fallen in love with troops that were so devoted to him they couldn't imagine going off to war without him. so fortunately enough of them came back to celebrate it that we now know of stubby's story. does that help? okay. good. >> how and when did conroy die? >> conroy lived to be 95.

excellent question. died in the 1980s. one of the things i learned as a got to know his grandson is he had been in fbi. he had quite a varied career. he had done public relations can which isn't too surprising. been very, very active with the military and veteran's organizations and so forth. eventually retired in florida and died are there. he was married twice. he had a daughter and the daughter had four children. he never had another dog. stubby was the only dog he had. that was his dog. do you want to ask a question? go ahead. >> um, my question is that

like -- you know that black and -- that a kind of gray picture you said you put in your book that no one had seen before? >> yes. >> it's not in the book. >> it's in the adult book. >> oh. >> you are very observe ant. that got sent off to press because it had the pictures in it. it had gone to press before i saw the blue suitcase. we didn't know about that picture when that book went to press. the adult book was still being worked on. we were able to fit that in. i said we've got to put this in the book, so we did. >> thank you for coming and making a great story greater. >> you're welcome. >> my question is, what are you going to do about the movie? >> i'm going to buy popcorn as

soon as it opens. you just connect me up with your producer any time. >> was stubby a sergeant?p8?ó >> this is a copy editor, proofreader in the works. when i first started reading about stubby on the internet, he was referred to as sergeant stubby. the story you'll read on the internet is that stubby was initially given military rank because of his service and a lot of people connected to that capturing of german spy. that a seemed reasonable. i read every newspaper article i could find about stubby. i went through the historical record and read proclamations and so forth made during the war. i could find no evidence of this whatsoever. no newspaper accounts of stubby written in the dog's lifetime ever, ever, ever call him sergeant.

he's just stubby. i believe some well intentioned individuals or whatever began referring to him as sergeant stubby as the internet became our go-to source for instant answers to questions. this rank was bestowed on him by fans at some point down the road. someone is welcome to argue and prove me wrong. i do not think the military has done that. they certainly could. i see no reason they shouldn't. so far it has not happened. yes? >> why did you name the book that? how long did it take to write it? >> stubby the war dog -- sometimes authors name the books, and sometimes editors do. my editor came up with the name for that book. it all runs together.

i was working on one and the other and both the same time. i probably spent about nine months researching the book and about nine months writing each of the books and another six or so months helping to finish with the production of then. so you add it all up, and it's two years or so working on books. we could be here until that a ball game starts. i think there's a ball game some folks want to get home for. i am going to take -- i see familiar faces. anyone here that hasn't asked a question in line. let's let you have the last question. the young lady. >> what countries did stubby go to? >> oh my.

so stubby would i think only have been in france. some of the troops went over through england before they went to france, but stubby did not. his unit landed in france and departed from france. some soldiers were sent to germany to help establish the occupation and peace while treaties were negotiated. the 26th division did not. france and united states would be it. i am very glad to be able to have been here. there are books in the lobby. i'd be be happy to talk further, answer questions, sign books. find out more about stubby through my author website. follow me on facebook. thank you very much. [ applause ]

the 114th congress gavels in tuesday at noon eastern. watch live coverage on cspan and senate on cspan 2. cspan radio, networks and cspan.org . juanita abernathy speaks next. she spoke and took questions

from the audience at the southern historical association annual meeting in atlanta. this is just under two hours. we are fortunate indeed for mrs. abernathy returned yesterday from an extended stay in germany with the family of her eldest daughter wandaline. some of you may know it was wandaline as a babe, along with her mother mrs. abernathy, pregnant with her second daughter, survived the bombing of their home in montgomery in 1957. along with tuskegee attorney fred gray, she is the last remaining leader from the montgomery bus boycott boycott. on several occasions i have been privileged to listen to mrs. abernathy, recall her experiences in the civil rights struggle. we are in for a treat.