[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 22, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4600-S4601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 LADDA ``TAMMY'' DUCKWORTH CONFIRMATION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Alaska for 
yielding to me and I also thank him for reading into the Record the 
approval of the nomination of Tammy Duckworth as Assistant Secretary of 
Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Veterans' Administration. 
She is going to have an exceptional responsibility as the chief 
communicator for the VA, but I cannot think of a better person to fill 
that job.
  Tammy Duckworth's life is one of service to her country. She was born 
into a military family. The daughter of a marine, she is a second 
generation Purple Heart recipient.
  Tammy started her own military career by joining ROTC in graduate 
school. She was commissioned in the Army Reserve in 1992. After 
completing helicopter flight school, she joined the Illinois National 
Guard in 1996.
  In 2004, Tammy was a doctoral student when she made a personal 
request to be deployed to Iraq. On the afternoon of November 12, 2004, 
she was on her last mission of the day flying a helicopter for the 
Illinois National Guard in Baghdad. Her Blackhawk helicopter was struck 
by a rocket-propelled grenade that ripped through the cockpit and hit 
Tammy in the legs. Not realizing the degree of her injuries, she tried 
to assist her copilot in landing the damaged aircraft.
  Once on the ground, her crew loaded Tammy onto a second helicopter. 
Tammy's next memory was waking up at Walter Reed with her husband, 
Bryan Bowlsbey, also a member of the Illinois National Guard, by the 
side of her bed. She learned then that the incident in that helicopter 
had cost her both of her legs and shattered her right arm.
  Well, 10 weeks later, after that horrendous experience, I met Tammy 
Duckworth. Each year, the President gives a State of the Union Address, 
and it has been my tradition to invite Illinois soldiers and sailors 
and airmen and marines who are recuperating in local military hospitals 
as my guests. That year, they told me there was a MAJ Tammy Duckworth 
from the Illinois National Guard who would join me. I will never forget 
it. She was in a wheelchair and in full dress uniform, with both legs 
missing, her arm in a sling, and her husband behind the wheelchair, and 
she had a big smile on her face. She came in and introduced herself. We 
got to know one another and spoke. We left my office then and went to 
an adjoining office for a press conference, where I introduced my guest 
to the Illinois press.
  A number of people showed up from the Illinois media, and one was a 
friend of mine, a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, Lynn Sweet. Lynn 
asked a hard question--an important one, but a very hard question for 
someone who is a disabled veteran having lost both of her legs in 
combat just a few weeks ago. Lynn asked of Major Duckworth: What do you 
think of those people who object to this war and complain that we never 
should have been in this war in the first place? What do you think of 
those who protest that this war should not have ever started?
  Tammy paused for a moment and said: Isn't that why we are fighting 
this war, so that people in America can express their point of view 
regardless of whether they agree with this Government or not?
  I was breathless at the end of that. I thought I cannot believe that 
answer from a woman who has been through what she had been through. I 
caught my breath and said: Are there any other questions? No. 
Afterward, I told Tammy that was the most amazing answer I can ever 
recall hearing from anybody. We had a good evening. I took her down to 
the Senate dinner before the State of the Union Address and introduced 
her to many colleagues, including John McCain, Tom Harkin, Danny 
Inouye, and many others. She was my guest at the State of the Union 
Address. I kept in touch with her.
  Tammy went through rehab. The Walter Reed Military Hospital did an 
extraordinary job fitting her with computer-assisted legs so she could 
walk with crutches. She made a miraculous recovery. I kept in touch for 
the next several months, and when I visited Walter Reed, a lot of those 
buff marines, who had lost a limb, said every time they were grunting 
and groaning and weren't sure they could go forward, somebody would 
say, ``Come on, Tammy,'' and they would keep pushing forward. She 
became an inspiration to everybody. At the time, she was the most 
seriously injured woman veteran in the Iraq war.
  I kept in touch with her, and a few months later I called her with a 
rather bold suggestion. I said: Tammy, have you ever thought about 
running for office? She said: Never. I said: Would you consider it? We 
have a vacancy in a congressional seat in Illinois where you live. She 
called me back and said: Bryan and I have a lot of questions to ask. I 
said I would be glad to try to answer them.
  At the end of the day, she became a candidate for Congress--just 13 
months after she had been shot down over Iraq. She ran a spirited 
campaign. She did not succeed, but she brought together the most 
amazing group of friends and supporters and volunteers I had ever seen. 
She was asked to head up the Illinois Veterans Affairs Department, 
where she did a terrific job. She started several first-in-the-Nation 
programs in that department: the Illinois Warrior Assistance Program, 
requiring additional screening for PTSD and traumatic brain injury; the 
GI Loan for Heroes Mortgage Loan Program; the VetsCash grant program, 
which provided over $5 million in grants to service organizations; and 
Veterans Adaptive Activities Day, bringing together Illinois 
organizations specializing in adaptive recreations and sports.
  Tammy is so self-sufficient and independent, it is hard to believe. 
She has her own pickup truck, which she likes to motor around in, which 
is all set up for her to use. She is so independent that the time came 
when her husband was activated to serve in Iraq, and instead of asking 
for special consideration because she would have been left alone in her 
rehabilitative state, she said: He wants to serve, and he should. He 
left for a year, and she kept things together while he was gone. She 
did a great job in the process.
  When President Obama was elected, he called on Tammy to bring her 
ethic and record of public service to Washington. I know she is going 
to do a great job.
  She was an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. She knows the 
difficulties servicemembers can face in the battlefield. As a recipient 
of VA military care at Walter Reed, you can bet the patients won't have 
a stronger advocate in the VA and for the VA facilities themselves. She 
uses them today and understands the frustration bureaucracies can 
create. She will be a real fighter for veterans. She has the 
perspective of somebody who has worked with and for veterans and is one 
herself.
  As the spouse of a servicemember who deployed to combat, she 
certainly

[[Page S4601]]

knows what families go through when that happens.
  In nominating Tammy Duckworth, President Obama knew he was getting a 
committed veterans advocate. She will be a strong voice for veterans. 
At the hearing the other day before Senators Akaka and Burr, I know she 
made a dramatic impression when she gave her testimony. She is the kind 
of person I am proud to count as a friend. I am so honored that she 
served our country. She has shown extraordinary heroism throughout her 
life, and she will show it in her record of public service with the VA, 
and she will show that the trust President Obama put in her was well 
placed.
  We all look forward to working with Tammy as she enters a new phase 
of service to our Nation and our veterans.
  I yield the floor.

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