 FACT: Col. Robert Stout responds at some point to Col. J.O.E  Vandeleur regarding a comment on American ingenuity, Stout says  something to the effect of being born in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia  didnt exist under that name until 6 January, 1929, which would have  made him a rather young colonel at 15. Prior to 1929, Yugoslavia was  known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, a name adopted  in 1918. Even so, someone born prior to 1929 in those territories  would most likely have identified an individual republic as a place  of birth.