Helo Pilot Lost Her Legs In 2004 RPG Attack

Major Ladda "Tammy" Duckworth, a former US Army pilot who lost both legs in a November 2004 grenade attack on her Blackhawk helicopter in Iraq, is now on the frontlines of a very different battle: to serve in the US House of Representatives.

Duckworth, a democrat, narrowly won her party's nomination for Congress in a primary race last week for the House seat being vacated by Republican Henry Hyde, who is retiring after 32 years in the government.

"My experience in Iraq made me realize, and during the recovery, that I could have died," said Duckworth, who gets around either by using a wheelchair, or metal prosthetic legs and a cane. "And I just had to do more with my life."

The Associated Press reports Duckworth is one of approximately 10 veterans of the current US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan to be running for Congress. All but one of them are Democrats.

Those nine candidates are being called "The Fighting Democrats," and are united by a common contention that their wartime experience allows them to criticize the war in Iraq, while also shrugging off the labels of naivete' and weakness commonly thrust on political opponents to the war.

Duckworth, a 38-year-old major in the Illinois Army National Guard who is married to a captain in the Guard, is likely the best-known of these candidates.

"I just thought that we never should have invaded Iraq," said Duckworth Wednesday, one day after she narrowly edged out businesswoman Christine Cegelis for the Democratic nomination. "We should have gone after Osama bin Laden and our enemies in Afghanistan who attacked us on our soil here in the United States."

"If my unit were deployed [to Iraq], I would go again," added Duckworth. "I think it is important to do your duty."

Duckworth faces an uphill battle in the November race in the heavily Republican 6th District, where she faces a popular state Senator, Peter Roskam, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary.

In fact, many analysts say, at this point it is unlikely many of the Democrat veterans running this year will win their races.

Stephen Hess, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, said most of the veterans are "running in places where they're sacrificial lambs," against well-known and established Republicans.

FMI: www.duckworthforcongress.com, www.peterroskam.com/