A Great Hero and Patriot: Tammy Duckworth
Reviewed by Dr. Jerry Flack
Ladda Tammy Duckworth is one of the most heroic persons to ever sit in the Congress of the United States. She is an incredible role model for women, persons with severe disabilities, critically wounded soldiers and veterans, gifted children and adults, and citizens of bi-racial ancestry. She has served two terms as a Congressional Representative and in November of 2022, she was re-elected to a second six-year term as a United States Senator from Illinois.
Although born in Bangkok, Thailand, Senator Duckworth is a native-born U.S. citizen as her father was an American citizen who served in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps and experienced military action in both World War II and Vietnam. His family traces its roots of military service all the way back to the American Revolutionary War. Senator Duckworth’s mother’s ancestry is Thai Chinese.
After military service, Franklin Duckworth worked with the United Nations to help war refugees in Southeast Asia. Growing up among victims of war, young Tammy learned early on the value of service. She was a Girl Scout and she traveled with her father as he delivered aid to refugees who dreamed of new lives in America. She had yet to see her homeland, but she learned that people even in remote and war-torn places on the Earth dreamed of the freedom, democracy, and opportunity America represented. Her own family had to be evacuated from Cambodia.
Hardship hit Tammy’s family when her father lost his post, and the family was forced to use all their life savings to move to Hawaii. The family was essentially homeless and at one point in time Tammy was the only family member with a job. She sold roses from a roadside location.
Despite her family’s poverty, young Tammy excelled in the classroom and in athletics. She graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1989 and entered graduate school at George Washington University. All her life, Tammy sought ways to serve her native country. While working on a master’s degree in international affairs, she discovered her pathway to service. She joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) where she developed great bonds of trust with fellow cadets.
Two vital events dramatically changed her life at this time. She became a Black Hawk helicopter pilot and was promoted to first lieutenant and commander of Company B of the 106 Aviation unit of the Illinois Army National Guard. She also fell in love with and married a soldier, Bryan Bowlsbey. Although her time as a unit commander was up, she begged her superior officers to allow her to remain with her company as they were deployed to Iraq when the United States declared war there. Through devoted service, Commander Duckworth was promoted to co-pilot of an Army helicopter in the war zone.
On November 12, 2004, an enemy rocket-propelled grenade struck the helicopter Tammy was flying. Initially believed to be dead, Officer Duckworth was air-lifted for emergency medical treatment. She was terribly injured. She lost both of her legs, and her right arm was greatly impaired. The agony continued. Her body rejected all pain medicines the doctors gave her. Her harrowing recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was lengthy (13 months) and extremely painful. She had to be fitted with titanium prosthetic legs and needed to learn to walk again as well as adjust to her severely damaged right arm. As she recovered, she continued to find ways to serve her country. She began to devote more and more time coming to the aid of other severely injured soldiers.
While still recuperating, Commander Duckworth was encouraged to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Political leaders convinced her that there was a need for more soldiers in Congress. If she could not return to combat, perhaps there was at least one other avenue for her to use to serve her homeland. Despite valiant efforts, Officer Duckworth lost the 2006 election. However, during her campaign she learned much about families in poverty without adequate health care. She developed an even greater passion for veterans, especially amputees. She was chosen to serve as the Director of the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs and advocated for their rights. In 2010, she achieved another first. She earned her pilot’s license.
Six years after her first unsuccessful run for Congress, she made a second bid for elective office in 2012. She was elected to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was re-elected in 2014. In 2016, Lieutenant Colonel Duckworth was elected to a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 2014 and 2018, against all odds, Congresswoman Duckworth gave birth to two daughters, Abigail Okalani and Maile Pearl Bowlsbey.
As a U.S. Senator, Tammy Duckworth achieved a long list of firsts. She was the first woman of Thai ancestry to serve in Congress. She was the first woman amputee to enter the U.S. Congress. She was the first U.S. Senator to give birth while in office. Her youngest daughter, Maile Pearl, was only ten days old when the U.S. Senate allowed her to be in its chamber so that her mother could cast important votes.
In her terms in Congress, Tammy Duckworth has fought hard for fair care for American veterans, women’s rights, family care, people with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, education, and the environment.
Author Christina Soontornvat ends her biography of this exceptional woman with Senator Duckworth’s own words about her war injuries and her commitment to service:
That day I lost both my legs, but I was given a second chance at life. It’s a feeling that has helped to drive me in my second chance at service – no one should be left behind.
Senator Duckworth has used that second chance to continue her life-long commitment to serve her homeland.
A Life of Service ends with a Time Line of Tammy Duckworth’s remarkable life and a more detailed description of her accomplishments as a member of Congress. Internet sites about Senator Duckworth are also listed.
Dow Phumiruk uses dramatic illustrations to highlight both the victories and the defeats and tragedies of an exceptional American woman. She does not avoid the painful images of Lieutenant Colonel Duckworth’s shootdown helicopter crash and her thirteen agonizing months of convalescence and rehabilitation as a double amputee. Ultimately, the artist, Dow Phumiruk, captures the great many ways this genuine American hero has found to serve causes larger than herself.
A Life of Service is a book to be read by all readers who admire courage and extraordinary giftedness realized.
Home and School Activities
The Geography of a Hero. Although Ladda Tammy Duckworth is a native-born American citizen, she did not see her homeland until her early teenage years when her family arrived destitute in Hawaii. Using the text references of the Army veteran and U.S. Senator and a world map, chart the travels of this incredibly heroic woman. Recognize that she makes many trips annually between her current residence in Illinois and the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C. In the 1990s, Commander Duckworth was deployed to Egypt, Iceland, and Guyana.
No Privileges as a U.S. Senator. This past summer (2023), Senator Duckworth took her two daughters to a Chicago movie theatre to see the movie, Barbie. The movie theatre had only one elevator and it was broken. Senator Duckworth, a double amputee, uses a wheelchair for mobility. Her daughters could go into the movie theatre and see the summer’s most successful film, but even a purple heart war hero had to wait outdoors in the hot sun while her daughters enjoyed what had been planned as a cheerful family outing. “We got all dressed up in pink and my girls put on their sparkly shoes.” Thirty-three years after the monumental passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, even a United States Senator found herself facing cruel discrimination. Encourage readers to use the Internet to learn all about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how people with disabilities still face discrimination and lack of opportunity to do life activities that most people take for granted. Urge students to write a letter to Senator Duckworth or pen an editorial to a local print or online source about the shame of such discrimination while others benefit from favoritism.
Veteran’s Day. Saturday, November 11, 2023, was Veteran’s Day in the U.S.A. Talk among family and/or classmates about the incredible service American veterans have given to their homeland. Ask readers to catalog the military Army career of officer and veteran Tammy Duckworth. Encourage readers to create a poster that shows her military career and charts her dedication to helping soldiers who are healing from traumatic war injuries along with her work for veterans’ rights. Perhaps using a background of a painted American flag, artistic students can create a collage that heralds the victories (and tragedies) of men and women who have served their country in the military. Young readers can also use the Internet to find Senator Duckworth’s web page. Encourage gifted students to create a poem that summarizes her life of service. Send it directly to her email address.
Every Day Is a Gift: A Memoir (Twelve, 2021). Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Tammy Duckworth refers to herself as soldier, senator, and mother in her highly praised memoir and New York Times best seller. Her fellow Senator, Mitt Romney, praised the memoir as “a quintessentially American story.” Mature gifted students and parents will find much greater detail about the events of her exceptional life of service in this memoir. Encourage secondary students to write a critical review of Duckworth’s memoir or compose an ode to a great American patriot. One caveat. Officer Duckworth’s memoir was written for adults and does include some adult language plus graphic accounts of her war injuries.
Soontornvat, Christina. A Life of Service: The Story of Senator Tammy Duckworth. Illus. by Dow Phumiruk. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2022.
