After War Injury, an Iraq Vet Takes on Politics

Duckworth still wears pink. She has a baseball jersey that reads, "Dude, where's my leg?"

The daughter of a retired Marine, Duckworth was born in Bangkok, where her father, Franklin Duckworth, did U.N. refugee work and married Lamai Sompornpairin, an ethnic Chinese. She spent much of her youth in Southeast Asia. She joined the ROTC while earning a master's degree in international affairs at George Washington University.

Moving to Illinois to pursue a doctorate, she signed up with the Illinois Army National Guard, asking to train as a Black Hawk pilot. This was partly because she hoped to taste combat, partly because she wanted to show she could match the men.

In her civilian life, she was a manager for Rotary International. As an Army captain, she rose to command 42 soldiers. She was about to transfer when the unit was called to duty in Iraq. She persuaded her superiors to reverse the move, saying, "There was no way I was going to let them go without me."

Of being a pilot, Duckworth says: "I love controlling this giant, fierce machine. I strap that bird on my back and I'm in charge of it and we just go, and it's just power."

On Nov. 12, 2004, after a stop in Baghdad's secure Green Zone for chocolate milkshakes, stir-fry and Christmas ornaments, Duckworth was right where she wanted to be, flying above the treetops at 130 mph.

Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg was at the controls when the grenade hit.

Milberg landed the chopper and mistook Duckworth for dead, she said, but helped haul her body, slippery with blood, to a second Black Hawk. Eight days later, she awoke from unconsciousness at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

For days, husband Bryan Bowlsbey had been at her bedside, repeating over and over: "You were injured. You are at Walter Reed. You are safe."

Unaware she was missing most of both legs, she asked why her feet hurt.

One person who had been to war, and had suffered for it, helped her see the future. He was former Army Lt. Robert J. Dole, wounded World War II vet and later Senate majority leader, who often visited Walter Reed without fanfare.

After a long conversation with him in early 2005, Duckworth understood that she had more to accomplish. She thought about the public service of veterans such as Dole, John F. Kennedy and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), and their Vietnam War-era brethren, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).