her Asian face but with Caucasian last name caught up my curiosity to check her ethical background. Duckworth, a former Army National Guard helicopter pilot who lost both legs when she was shot down in Iraq in 2004.She is also reportedly under consideration by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to be his running mate.
--
Early life and education[edit]
Tammy Duckworth was born in Bangkok, Thailand, the daughter of Lamai Sompornpairin and Franklin Duckworth. Her father, who died in 2005, was a U.S. Army veteran[5][better source needed] who traced his family's American roots to the American Revolutionary War.[6] Her mother is Thai Chinese.[7] Because of her father's work with the United Nations and international companies in refugee, housing, and development programs,[8] the family moved around Southeast Asia. Duckworth became fluent in Thai and Indonesian, in addition to English.[9]
Duckworth attended Singapore American School, and for a few months in her senior year was at the International School Bangkok, and was in the class of 1985 at Jakarta Intercultural School[10][11] (then known as Jakarta International School). The family settled in Hawaii when she was sixteen. Her father was unemployed for a time, and the family relied on public assistance.[8] She graduated with honors from McKinley High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1985, having skipped the ninth grade. She graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and later received a Master of Arts in international affairs from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.[12] She completed a PhD in Human Services at Capella University in March 2015.[13
Military service[edit]
.jpg)
Following in the footsteps of her father, who served in World War II, and ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War,[5] Duckworth joined the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps as a graduate student at George Washington University in 1990. She became a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve in 1992 and chose to fly helicopters because it was one of the few combat jobs open to women at that time. As a member of the Army Reserve, she went to flight school, later transferring to the Army National Guard and entering the Illinois Army National Guard in 1996.[14] Duckworth also worked as a staff supervisor at Rotary International headquarters in Evanston, Illinois[15][16] and was the coordinator of the Center for Nursing Research at Northern Illinois University.[17]
Duckworth was working towards a Ph.D. in political science at Northern Illinois University, with research interests in the political economy and public health in southeast Asia, when she was deployed to Iraq in 2004.[15] She lost her right leg near the hip and her left leg below the knee[18] from injuries sustained on November 12, 2004, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents.[19] She was the first American female double amputee from the Iraq War.[3] The explosion severely broke her right arm and tore tissue from it, necessitating major surgery to repair it.[5][5] Duckworth received a Purple Heart on December 3 and was promoted to Major on December 21 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she was presented with an Air Medal and Army Commendation Medal.[19] She retired from the Illinois Army National Guard in October 2014 as a lieutenant colonel.[20]
The Daughters of the American Revolution erected a statue with Duckworth's likeness and that of the Revolution's Molly Pitcher in Mount Vernon, Illinois, in 2011.[5] The statue was dedicated in honor of female veterans.[5][21]
| Military service | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1992–2014 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit |  Illinois Army National Guard 106th Aviation Regiment, 28th Infantry Division |
| Battles/wars | Iraq War (WIA) |
| Awards |  Purple Heart Meritorious Service Medal Air Medal Army Commendation Medal with Oak leaf cluster National Defense Service Medal Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal with four Oak leaf clusters Army Service Ribbon Combat Action Badge Senior Army Aviator Badge_ribbon.svg) Dame Grand Cross (First Class) of the Order of the Crown of Thailand[1] |
Government service[edit]
On November 21, 2006, several weeks after losing her first congressional campaign, Duckworth was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs by Governor Rod Blagojevich.[22][23][24] She served in that position until February 8, 2009. While Director, she was credited with starting a program to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and veterans with brain injury.[25]
On September 17, 2008, Duckworth attended a campaign event for Dan Seals, the Democratic candidate for Illinois's 10th congressional district. She used vacation time, but violated Illinois law by going to the event in a state-owned van that was equipped for a person with physical disabilities. She acknowledged the mistake and repaid the state for the use of the van.[26]
In 2009, two Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs employees at the Anna Veterans' Home in Union County filed a lawsuit against Duckworth.[27] The lawsuit alleged that she wrongfully terminated one employee and threatened and intimidated another for bringing reports of abuse and misconduct of veterans when she was head of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.[28] Duckworth was represented in the suit by the Illinois Attorney General's office.[29] The case was dismissed twice but refilings were allowed.[30] The court set a tentative trial date of August 2016 and rejected the final motion to dismiss.[31] The state announced that it had settled the case in June 2016 for $26,000 with no admission of wrongdoing.[30] The plaintiffs later indicated they no longer wanted to settle, but the judge gave them 21 days to sign the settlement and canceled the trial.[32][33]
Also in 2009, the Illinois Auditor General released an audit of the Veterans Affairs department. Some issues noted by the audit predated Duckworth's tenure, but the majority of it covered her tenure.[34] Its findings included a fiscal year 2007 report that was not completed on time, failure to conduct annual reviews of benefits received by Illinois veterans, and failure to establish a task force to study the possible health effects of exposure to hazardous materials. The routine audit covered a two-year period, June 2006 to June 2008, and the auditor's department called its findings "typical" of its audits.[35]
On February 3, 2009, Duckworth was nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.[36] The United States Senate confirmed her for the position on April 22.[37] Duckworth resigned her position in June 2011 in order to launch her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois's 8th Congressional District.[38]
