By the time Tammy Duckworth arrived as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013, she was hardly the first woman to triumph amid the rough-and-tumble of congressional politics.
But she may have been among the most uniquely qualified people, male or female, ever to do so.
In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq with the Illinois Army National Guard as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot. One of the first Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom, she lost both of her legs and partial use of her right arm when her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. The Purple Heart recipient spent much of the following year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — and becoming deeply involved in advocating for veterans and her fellow wounded warriors, even testifying before Congress.
Less than a decade later, Ladda Tammy Duckworth would return to the Capitol as the first disabled woman to be elected to the House. The Democrat also is the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress from Illinois and the first member of Congress born in Thailand (her late father was a U.S. Marine Corps vet, her mother is Thai).
Duckworth, 47, is running for the U.S. Senate from Illinois. On Nov. 18, 2014, she and her husband, Army National Guard Maj. Bryan W. Bowlsbey, became first-time parents when Duckworth gave birth to a daughter.
Abigail O’kalani Bowlsbey arrived exactly two weeks after her mother won re-election to the House and six days after her 10th anniversary of being shot down in Iraq.
Or as Duckworth always refers to Nov. 12: her “Alive Day.”
