The military is about accomplishing the mission. But what is the mission? Our military can accomplish any mission you want to put in front of them. We have an incredible military but we need to make sure that we use that might in the most appropriate and judicious manner and I just don’t think that’s been done.

SM: You say you couldn’t speak out against the war back then. What has changed now?
Tammy Duckworth: I can speak out to you when I’m on my own time, when I’m not in uniform. I’m no longer on active duty and because I ran for political office I did inform my superior officers and then made statements as a private citizen. These statements should never be taken in context of my rank in the military or the opinion of the military; they’re only my opinions. By nature of my injuries and being sort of thrust into the spotlight I was put in that situation where I ended up having to say things.

In 2006, Duckworth ran as a Democrat for a seat in Congress against Republican Peter Roskam. It was an incredibly competitive election and ultimately Roskam won. A few months later the governor of Illinois appointed her to be the director of the Illinois Veterans’ Affairs Department.


Tammy Duckworth with her husband Bryan Bowlsbey on the left and Senator Dick Durbin on the right.

SM: You ran for Congress pretty quickly after you were injured. What caused you to enter politics?
Tammy Duckworth: I became very disillusioned with the lack of understanding of our political leaders with what was important to our military and how our military men and women were being treated, how our veterans were being treated. I started contacting Senator Durbin, who’s the Senator of Illinois, about some of the problems we were having at Walter Reed with some of the injured troops.