Friday, August 27, 2004

RETRACTION: I have been informed that the previous post showing Senator Dole using both arms is the result of a photo that has been flipped. We apologize for this error and simply hoped people could make their own decisions about Senator Dole's war injuries. After all, he never bled that I know of.

From the The Nation Aug 12/19 1996

Dole's first wound. It was in the first of these night patrols that Dole received the wound for which he was awarded his first Purple Heart. He ruefully confesses in his 1988 autobiography that his wound was self-inflicted: "As we approached the enemy, there was a brief exchange of gunfire. I took a grenade in hand, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the direction of the farmhouse. It wasn't a very good pitch (remember, I was used to catching passes, not throwing them). In the darkness, the grenade must have struck a tree and bounced off. It exploded nearby, sending a sliver of metal into my leg -- the sort of injury the Army patched up with Mercurochrome and a Purple Heart." The wound was so minor that he led another patrol two nights later. He does not mention that others were also injured by his misguided throw.


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