Bob Dole hand?

[MemphisTiger]

Please settle a discussion my freeper co-worker and I are having. I always heard that Bob Dole lost his arm in WWII, and he wears a prosthetic with a pencil to keep people from shaking his fake arm. Kind of like Kingpin, Roy Munson. The freeper says he had cerebral palsy and it is curled under, but it is he real hand with a pencil in it. Please help. I know some of you are much more knowledgeable in these areas than I am.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. I believe he injured his arm in WWII.

[RagingInMiami]

2. Didn't he replace the pencil with a bottle of Viagra?

[Worst Username Ever]

3. It is his real hand, crippled from a war injury. He holds pen in it

to make it look a little more natural on TV.

[seriousstan]

4. He was injured in WW2...

World War Two, when he heroically jumped out of his foxhole to rescue a buddy and in the process got shot himself. Dole was initially triaged out because his injuries looked hopeless; an "M" was written on his forehead using his own blood to indicate that he was to get no more precious morphine. Eventually however he recovered with only his shoulder and right arm to remain paralyzed.

[chemteacher]

5. Real hand...injured in WWII

It's his real hand and he does carry a pen to make the curl in his fingers look a little more natural.

I also think that keeps people from extending their right hand to shake hands with him since his injury prevents him from responding with that hand.

That said, I used to think he was sort of OK in the old time fiscally conservative Republican sort of way (like another Kansas, Dwight Eisenhower). His BS last summer with Kerry's Purple Hearts made me decide that the Viagra is working and he really is a big prick. (credit to someone here on DU for the joke)

[On Par]

6. WWII...from Machine Gun fire...

In 1942, Bob Dole joined the Army's Enlisted Reserve Corps to fight in World War II. He became a second lieutenant in the Army's 10th Mountain Division.

By April of 1945, he was fighting the Nazis in the hills of Italy where the action was fast paced. One of the platoon's radio men was hit. Bob Dole crawled out of his foxhole to help him, but it was too late.

Suddenly, while trying to assist the downed radio man, Dole was hit by Nazi machine gun fire in the upper right back and his right arm was so damaged that it was unrecognizable. Dole was immediately given morphine by an Army field medic to alleviate the pain, and his forehead was marked with an "M" in his own blood to alert medics. He was not expected to live.

More...
http://www.bobdole.org/bio/wwII.php

[auburngrad82]

7. It's an injury called the "Viagra Cramp" eom