One Soldier’s Story: A Memoir, by Bob Dole

New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Pp. xix, 287. Illus., map. $14.95 paper. ISBN:0-06-076942-6.

Bob Dole, former Republican senator from Kansas and 1996 presidential candidate, was one of many Americans who, as young men, had their lives interrupted by World War II. This is account of that war, and that life.

Originally published in 2005, One Soldier’s Story is a well written and well organized. The opening chapter recounts a trip by the Senator and his wife to a military hospital to visit with men who had been wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. This leads to a compelling account of the culminating moments of Dole’s wartime career, when he was seriously wounded while leading men of the 10^th Mountain Dividion in the final weeks of the war in northern Italy, a wound that would disable his right arm for the rest of his life.

Then One Soldier’s Story returns to review Dole’s early life, as a boy in a small prairie town, from the hardships of the Great Depression and the “Dust Bowl” on thought the coming of war. It then follows him through his induction into the army, learning to soldier, and his experiences in the field. Reprising briefly the events that led to his disability, Dole carries the story through his long years of recovery and physical therapy, which never managed to break his spirit.

Reviewer: A. A. Nofi   Buy it at Amazon.com

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