Bob Dole and the passing of the "Greatest Generation"

 By T. R. Shaw Jr.

Battle Creek, Michigan—As World War II ended in 1946, thousands of seriously wounded combat veterans came to my hometown of Battle Creek to recover and renew.  For many, it was much more than just a hospital, the experience here changed their lives and the direction of our nation.

            Prior to the war, in the early 20^th Century, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a pioneering physician and Seventh-Day Adventist, built the nation’s top health institution, the Battle Creek Sanitarium. 

The “San” was the Club Med of its day, bringing nobility, celebrities, and world leaders to Battle Creek for Kellogg’s holistic and ground-breaking, if not unusual, health and diet regime.  As history has it, the Corn Flake was invented here, by accident after a batch of granola was left out overnight, and rolled into flakes.  Kellogg’s younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg, saw opportunity and took the innovation, against his brother’s will, and established the cereal industry, forever changing our world’s breakfast habits.

Dr. Kellogg later struggled financially with the Sanitarium, then the great depression finished it.  The institution closed in 1943 and went into receivership, as World War II thrust us back into economic revival. 

The Battle Creek Sanitarium was taken over by the government and became the Percy Jones Army Hospital on February 21, 1943, named for the patriarch of modern military field medicine.  Jones died in October, 1941.  

Many communities took in wounded veterans, but Percy Jones became one of America’s largest, and leading veteran recovery and rehabilitation hospitals, treating thousands of gravely wounded and amputee veterans.  The hospital became a long term home to many who lost limbs, or were severely physically wounded.  For most it was a first step toward mobility and a return to normal life.  Many veterans stayed in Battle Creek and met future spouses here, becoming a part of the community.

For future Senators Bob Dole, Dan Inouye and Philip Hart it had deeper meaning, as all of them spent substantial time at Percy Jones in Battle Creek and forged great friendships that would take them to the heights of government service. 

The former sanitarium and Army hospital is now a federal building, housing several components of the Defense Logistics Agency.  It is now appropriately named the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in tribute to three of the most distinguished patients who went on to lead our nation.

The death of Bob Dole marks the last surviving namesake of the building.  Philip Hart died in 1976, and Dan Inouye died in 2012.  Both Dole and Inouye were present for the naming ceremony in May 2003.  Although, not named, another wounded veteran, John Swainson, recovered at Percy Jones and went on to become the Governor of Michigan in 1961.

Because of the large amount of patients and wheel chairs, Battle Creek became the first city in America to put curb cuts on all its street corners so wounded veterans could access the nearby downtown.  Many of the veterans were offered jobs in the community as part of their rehabilitation.  Local merchants opened their doors, arms, and hearts to many of them and gave them beneficial part-time employment as they worked their way back to normal. 

A close friend of my grandparents owned the local Oldsmobile dealership just two blocks from the hospital.  He took on Bob Dole as a part-time salesman, along with many other veterans in the garage.  Many local business owners did the same.  Battle Creek embraced all the veterans who came to our community.  It was a remarkable time in our history.

I never met Senators Dole or Hart, but I did have an opportunity to meet Senator Dan Inouye on his very last visit to Battle Creek in 2010.  Then-Congressman Mark Schauer invited Inouye and his wife, to visit and tour the namesake Federal Center and speak to a large audience.  I was given the opportunity to introduce Inouye, the senior Senator from Hawaii.

With Sen. and Mrs. Inouye, 2010
(Photo by Al Lassen)

Inouye came from pre-statehood Hawaii’s Japanese population.  He had to overcome the “enemy-alien” status following the Pearl Harbor attack, being a native-born child of Japanese parents, to serve in the Army.  Until WWII he had never been to the mainland United States.  He did some brief Army training in Texas, then went off to Europe where he was gravely wounded in Italy in 1945, when a grenade shattered his right arm. He was treated and transferred to Percy Jones in Battle Creek for recovery.  He eventually earned the Medal of Honor. 

He credited Battle Creek as the place which truly made him an American and where he learned to love the United States.  He had to relearn how to function, even how to eat.  It was during this time that he lauded all the staff and nurses who helped educate him on America as he became a citizen.  He said that Battle Creek ignited his fire for all that is good in America and he went on to serve his native, now state, of Hawaii for many years.

Dole, was also wounded in Italy in 1945 with the 10^th Mountain Division, when a German grenade hit him in the back, shattering part of his spine, collarbone and arm.  Fellow soldiers didn’t think he would survive and gave him a large dose of morphine.  They then put an M on his forehead, with his own blood, to prevent others from giving him another potentially fatal dose, and moved on.  He was recovered by medics and survived, and rehabilitated in Battle Creek until late 1947 when he was medically discharged as a Captain.

Hart, a fighter for Michigan and
deemed "Prince of the Senate"

Hart, was wounded on D-Day at Normandy when his arm was nearly shattered by enemy fire.  He recovered at Percy Jones and went on to the University of Michigan Law School and the United States Senate in 1959 representing Michigan.  He died in office in 1976 and the main Senate Office Building in Washington bears his name.  He is buried at Mackinac Island’s St. Anne Cemetery.

Senators Hart, Dole, and Inouye, who all passed through Battle Creek, bring up the rear of what has been termed “The Greatest Generation.”  A generation of patriots who sacrificed and saved our nation, and the world and set the standard for the freedom we enjoy today.  They are quickly slipping away.

Let us take time to reflect on all the true heroes and patriots who saved the world in the middle of the 20^th Century and gave us all that we have today.

We must never forget the sacrifices, love and perseverance veterans of this generation gave us.  They are almost all gone now, Bob Dole was 98. 

Eternally grateful, just isn’t enough. 

Rest in Peace brothers, the torch has been passed.

 

T. R. Shaw Jr. is a Battle Creek author, historian and community leader, and is a retired U.S. Navy officer and funeral director. www.trshawjr.com