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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.

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