Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. celebrates the Army's 234th Birthday with children of Fort Detrick's Forest Glen Annex Child Development Center in Maryland.

Casey came to the CDC on the Annex June 17 to help the kids celebrate the Army Birthday. About 20 children were gathered in a red, white and blue decorated room for the celebration.

‘‘Do you know how old the Army is?” Casey asked. The chorus of replies got the answer -- 234 years -- mostly right. The next question: ‘‘Do you know how old I am?” Despite some of the answers being ‘‘234 years old,” Casey took the replies in stride and laughed with the kids. Casey read the book, Sam the Army Dog to the attentive group, even getting the kids involved as they responded to questions and quickly learned and chanted some of the story's recurring themes.

Sam, of course, is a dreamer and a patriot who longs to be a ‘‘real Army dog.” During the course of the story, Sam gets to meet Cordymay, a Red Cross therapy dog trained to work with Wounded Warriors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was introduced in last year's Army birthday book. During the climactic meeting, surprise guest Cordymay slipped quietly into the room, but as soon as one child spotted the dog, gleeful chaos erupted.

Cordymay, Sam's inspiration and role model in the story, was swamped with affection and happy petting for a few moments, but the children settled down quickly to hear the rest of the story.

As Casey told the story of Sam, the ‘‘dog who wanted to be all the dog he could be,” he reminded the listening children how important they were and how important their families were to the Army.

At the end of the book, Casey and the kids sang Happy Birthday to the Army, then shared cake and punch.

‘‘We're so honored to have Gen. Casey here,” said Ann Weber, chief of Child, Youth and School Services at the Annex.