Bob Dole to write World War II memoir

NEW YORK -- Former Sen. Bob Dole is writing a memoir about his military service during World War II. “A Veteran Remembers” will be published by HarperCollins in 2005, the 60th anniversary of the war’s end.

“For years, friends and family members have asked me to consider writing a book about my World War II experiences. And for years, I told them that I was not quite ready,” the 80-year-old Dole said in a statement Tuesday.

“Last year, my sister discovered all of my World War II letters to my family and their responses. With these first-person accounts, I think now may be the right time to do such a project.”

Dole served as a platoon leader in the 10th Mountain Division and was severely wounded April 14, 1945, in the Po Valley in northern Italy. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. During an attack on a German position, Dole was hit by a shell fragment. Two of his vertebrae were crushed, paralyzing his arms and legs, and his lungs and kidneys were damaged. He spent three years in hospitals recovering.

Dole permanently lost most use of his right arm, and had little feeling in his left thumb and forefinger, which made it difficult to even button a shirt.

A Republican from Kansas, Dole had a 36-year career on Capitol Hill, serving as a committee chairman, majority leader and minority leader in the Senate during the 1980s and ’90s.

He was Gerald Ford’s running mate in the 1976 presidential campaign, when the GOP lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter, and sought his party’s nomination for the presidency in 1980 and 1988. The last of his unsuccessful bids for national office came in 1996 when he lost to President Clinton.

He is the author of two books of political humor, “Great Presidential Wit” and “Great Political Wit.”

From: http://www.detnews.com/2004/books/0404/14/books-122817.htm

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