Former U.S. Sens. Bob Dole (left) and George McGovern appeared at a forum on WWII that turned into a free rolling discussion on U.S. involvement today in Iraq. The Cincinnati Enquirer/MICHAEL E. KEATING

WASHINGTON - Former Sens. Bob Dole and George McGovern have spent decades on opposite sides of political battles, but when it comes to their service in World War II, they are brothers.

Dole, the Republican presidential candidate in 1996, and McGovern, the Democrat from South Dakota who lost to Richard Nixon in 1972, came together Thursday afternoon in the Wartime Stories tent at the National World War II Reunion for an hourlong discussion that drew a near-capacity crowd of about 1,000 of their fellow WWII veterans and their families.

McGovern, who ran for president on a platform calling for an end to the war in Vietnam, served as a bomber pilot in WWII, flying dozens of missions over the heart of Germany in the effort to crush Hitler's war machine.

"I never thought of myself as an antiwar senator," said McGovern, who left the Senate nearly a quarter-century ago.

"There has not been a day of my life where I would not have laid down my life for my country."

Dole, who lost the use of his right arm when he was wounded while serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy, was one of the driving forces behind the completion of the National World War II Memorial that will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Saturday on the National Mall.

While senate majority leader in the early 1990s, Dole shook loose the federal dollars that kick-started the project, which eventually raised $195 million in private donations, much of it from veterans themselves.

Dole joked Thursday about his role in making the monument possible.

"I didn't pick the design; I didn't pick the site," Dole said. "All I did was pick the pockets of a lot of people to pay for it."

BUGGED: What do the National World War II Reunion on Washington's Mall and your back yard have in common?

Cicadas.

The flying insects have taken over the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs, just as they have in Cincinnati.

For the tens of thousands who walked on the Mall's gravel pathways Thursday to see the WWII exhibits, crunching cicadas under foot was a common occurrence.

"They're starting to get on my nerves," said Mary Ann Ellis, a federal worker who escaped the bugs Thursday afternoon deep in the bowels of Washington's subway system.

Tell that to Tristate residents.

SAY WHAT?: One of the panel discussions Thursday at the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project tent featured several members of the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary all-black unit of fighter pilots.

Col. Lee Archer, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, talked about the training the black pilots received on how to handle themselves if they were shot down over Europe, where black people are few and far between.

"They'd tell us, 'Get rid of your parachute, get rid of your uniform and meld into the crowd,'" Archer said, shaking his head. "I'm not sure we could do that."

Howard Wilkinson