Bob Dole rehabbing with young troops

WASHINGTON, July 4 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, is recovering from knee surgery alongside current troops in Washington.

Dole, 86, had a knee replacement in February at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and his recuperation was complicated by a bout of pneumonia, CNN said. The hospitalization is the latest for Dole, a former 2nd lieutenant, who suffered near-fatal injuries in 1945. His right arm has been paralyzed since World War II.

Now back on his feet, the wise-cracking Dole is doing physical therapy on a stationary bicycle alongside injured vets of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. He marvels at the progress of today's modern medicine.

"I've been here long enough to watch when they first came in, and then to see them today," Dole told the U.S. broadcaster, as he joked with the active-duty troops in the exercise room.

"These are modern medical miracles, you see them every day here," he said. "If they're wounded on one day, they can be in Walter Reed the third day. It took me nine hours to get off the battlefield. It took me weeks to get home."