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BOB DOLE LECTURE: One Soldier’s Story
Special Edition

In this extraordinary special edition, Bob Dole returns home to Kansas—and to the school that bears his name—to tell the story that shaped everything that came after.

Standing before a new generation, Dole recounts the moment on a battlefield in Italy when his life was shattered by war, and the long, uncertain months that followed in a military hospital. With humility, clarity, and quiet courage, he describes learning to live again from a hospital bed, facing pain, disability, and doubt—while refusing to surrender the future.

But this is not just a story of survival.

It is the story of how a wounded soldier became a national leader.

From Percy Jones Army Hospital to the halls of Congress, from small-town Kansas to the pinnacle of American political life, Dole traces the improbable road that carried him from despair to purpose, and from service in uniform to service in government.

Recorded before students at the Bob Dole–named school, this lecture is both deeply personal and profoundly American—a testament to resilience, duty, and the idea that adversity does not define us, but can instead forge us.

One Soldier’s Story is Bob Dole, in his own words, offering a legacy lesson about courage, perseverance, and what it truly means to serve.

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Season 17 Premiere

Before Bob Dole became a Senate leader, a presidential nominee, or a national symbol of resilience, he was a 21-year-old second lieutenant fighting for his life on a hillside in Italy.

This season-opening episode begins at the moment everything changed.

Through Bob Dole’s own words and historic audio, we return to the brutal final months of World War II and the Allied push through Italy during Operation Grapeshot, the last great offensive in Europe. We hear Dole describe the battlefield where he was struck down, the comrades he was trying to save, and the wounds that would leave him permanently disabled—but never defeated.

The story widens through the voices of two other giants of American history who were fighting just miles away.

Senator Ted Stevens recounts the shock of Pearl Harbor and America’s sudden plunge into global war.
Senator Daniel Inouye, wounded only a few hills from where Dole fell, shares his harrowing combat experience and the loss that forever marked him.

Their paths would converge at Percy Jones Army Hospital in Michigan, where Dole, Inouye, and future Senator Frank Hart lay in hospital beds, learning how to live again. In this episode, we explore what life was like inside that ward of shattered young men—and what Bob Dole was like when the world he knew had just ended.

We also hear from Michael Glassner, Dole’s longtime aide and traveling companion, who describes the daily realities of caring for Dole’s war-caused injuries, and from Senate Leader Trent Lott, who reflects on Dole’s character and on the enormous debt America owes to the Greatest Generation.

This is more than a war story.
It is the origin story of a statesman.

Episode 420 launches Season 17 of our landmark Bob Dole series, beginning the final great chapter of the World War II generation—told through the life of the last of its national leaders.

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In this special tribute episode, we honor the extraordinary life and legacy of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell — Olympic athlete, decorated Marine, master silversmith, and one of the most consequential Native American leaders in the history of the United States Senate.

Campbell’s journey was uniquely American: from a childhood marked by hardship, to representing the United States in the Olympics, to becoming a powerful voice for Native nations and Western communities in Washington. As a U.S. Senator from Colorado, he reshaped the national conversation on tribal sovereignty, cultural preservation, and the dignity of Indigenous peoples, while also embodying a rugged independence that defied political labels.

This episode is also dedicated to Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, a fellow Western original whose music, like Campbell’s life, celebrated freedom, wandering, and the search for something deeper than fame or power. Both men came to represent a uniquely American kind of spirit — restless, generous, and rooted in tradition while never afraid to push beyond it.

Through stories, reflections, and historical context, we remember Ben Nighthorse Campbell not just as a senator, but as a craftsman, a warrior, and a bridge between worlds — a man who carried the past forward while carving out space for a more honorable future.

This is a tribute to a life lived with courage, authenticity, and enduring impact — and to the kindred spirit of Bob Weir, whose music has long been the soundtrack for America’s long and winding road.

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
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