Editing Bob Dole (section)

==World War II and recovery==
Dole joined the United States Army's Enlisted Reserve Corps in 1942 to fight in World War II, becoming a [[US Second Lieutenant|second lieutenant]] in the Army's [[U.S. 10th Mountain Division|10th Mountain Division]].
In April 1945, while engaged in combat near [[Castel d'Aiano]] in the [[Apennine Mountains|Apennine mountains]] southwest of [[Bologna]], Italy, Dole was seriously wounded by a German shell that struck his upper back and right arm, shattering his collarbone and part of his spine. "I lay face down in the dirt," Dole said. "I could not see or move my arms. I thought they were missing."
As [[Lee Sandlin]] describes, when fellow soldiers saw the extent of his injuries, they believed all they could do was "give him the largest dose of [[morphine]] they dared and write an 'M' for 'morphine' on his forehead in his own blood, so that nobody else who found him would give him a second, fatal dose."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leesandlin.com/articles/LosingTheWar.htm|title=Losing the War |first1=Lee |last1=Sandlin |publisher=Leesandlin.com|access-date=June 17, 2010}}</ref>

Dole was paralyzed from the neck down and transported to a military hospital near Kansas. Having blood clots, a life-threatening infection, and a fever of almost {{convert|109|F|C}}, he was expected to die. After large doses of [[penicillin]] were not successful, he overcame the infection with the administration of [[streptomycin]], one of the first ever uses of that drug in a human.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bilbray |first1=Brian P. |title=Antibiotic treatments over the past century |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2012-12-31/html/CREC-2012-12-31-pt1-PgE2023-4.htm |website=Congressional Record Online |publisher=Government Publishing Office |access-date=22 August 2023 |date=December 31, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230822230313/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2012-12-31/html/CREC-2012-12-31-pt1-PgE2023-4.htm |archive-date= Aug 22, 2023 }}</ref><ref>Dole, B. ''One Soldier's Story'', pp. 202–04.</ref><ref name="Cramer 1992">{{cite book |vauthors= Cramer RB |title=What it takes : the way to the White House |date=1992 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-0-394-56260-5 |edition=1st |pages = 110–111}}</ref> He remained despondent, "not ready to accept the fact that my life would be changed forever". He was encouraged to see [[Hampar Kelikian]], an [[orthopedist]] in Chicago who had been working with veterans returning from war. Although during their first meeting Kelikian told Dole that he would never be able to recover fully, the encounter changed Dole's outlook on life, who years later wrote of Kelikian, a survivor of the [[Armenian genocide]], "Kelikian inspired me to focus on what I had left and what I could do with it, rather than complaining what had been lost." Dr. K, as Dole later came to affectionately call him, operated on him seven times, free of charge, and had, in Dole's words, "an impact on my life second only to my family".<ref>{{cite book|last=Bobelian|first=Michael|title=Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long Struggle for Justice|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|year=2009|pages=164–65|isbn=978-1-4165-5725-8}}</ref>

[[File:Bob Dole and Daniel Inouye at Percy Jones Army Hospital.jpg|thumb|left|Friend and future senator [[Daniel Inouye]] (''left'') with Dole (''next to Inouye'') playing cards while recovering at [[Hart–Dole–Inouye Federal Center|Percy Jones Army Hospital]] (now Hart–Dole–Inouye Federal Center) in the mid-1940s.]]
Dole recovered from his wounds at the Percy Jones Army Hospital in [[Battle Creek, Michigan]]. This complex of federal buildings, no longer a hospital, is now named [[Hart–Dole–Inouye Federal Center]] in honor of three patients who became United States Senators: Dole, [[Philip Hart]], and [[Daniel Inouye]]. Dole was decorated three times, receiving two [[Purple Heart]]s for his injuries, and the [[Bronze Star Medal|Bronze Star]] with [["V" Device]] for valor for his attempt to assist a downed [[radioman]]. The injuries left him with limited mobility in his right arm and [[anaphia|numbness]] in his left arm. He minimized the effect in public by keeping a pen in his right hand, and learned to write with his left hand.<ref>{{cite news |last=Seelye |first=Katharine Q. |date=April 14, 1996 |title=War Wounds Shape Life, and Politics, for Dole |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/us/war-wounds-shape-life-and-politics-for-dole.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 5, 2021}}</ref> In 1947, he was medically discharged from the Army as a captain.<ref name="Brokaw1998">{{cite book |last1=Brokaw |first1=Tom |authorlink=Tom Brokaw |title=The Greatest Generation |date=November 30, 1998 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |edition=Hardcover |page=354 |chapter=BOB DOLE |isbn=978-0-375-50462-4 |language=en |quote=He(=Bob Dole) spent twenty months in hospitals before his discharge as a captain.}}, {{Google books|YHd-AMoLJgEC|The Greatest Generation|page=354}} {{access-date|December 18, 2021}}</ref>