October 4th (Friday) 5:30 PM, YCM Lobby

Ed Saunders, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and veteran of the Persian Gulf War, presents remarkable stories of heroism and service about Montana’s women veterans of World War I from his 2018 book, “Knapsacks and Roses, Montana’s Women Veterans of World War I.” Saunders finished an eight-year effort to find, validate, record for history, the military service of over 200 Yellowstone County and Montana women in uniform in the Great War. From his research, Saunders directed the effort for a memorial to Yellowstone County’s women veterans of World War I. He is part of the national research effort to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Women’s Telephone Unit of the American Signal Corps of World War I: the famed “Hello Girls.” He is a former member of the Yellowstone Historic Preservation Board and received the Board’s year 2019 Eugene T. Carroll Award for achievement in historic preservation. Ed and his wife of forty-one years live outside of Laurel, Montana. Their son, Ben, is a former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.