One Soldier's Story

Bob Dole was a member of what Tom Brokaw called "the Greatest Generation," the Americans who grew up during the Depression and who served in World War II. Dole later became famous as a US senator, and even later, in 1996, as the Republican party candidate for the presidency. In this memoir, he recounts his formative years in Russell, Kansas, where he had dreams of being the first one in his family to go to college--and was. In 1943, Dole left school to join the Army, where he became a lieutenant, and in April 1945, in Italy, he was seriously wounded in battle. He underwent a slow and difficult rehabilitation, yet never regained the use of one arm. Dole tells a simple story of life during wartime, providing resonance with passages from letters that he wrote to his loved ones. What emerges is the voice of one soldier telling the story of what happened to him--an inspiring tale in which Dole credits the army and his family for getting him through. In the end he reflects on the hardships and challenges he faced, saying, "Life, on the whole, has been more than fair to me."