Tammy Duckworth
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Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and Army National Guard veteran serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois, a seat she has held since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented Illinois's 8th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017. Born in Bangkok, Thailand, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Duckworth was educated at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and George Washington University. She joined the United States Army Reserve in 1992, and served as a United States Army helicopter pilot in the Iraq War. In 2004, when her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents, she lost both legs and some mobility in her right arm. She was the first female double amputee from the war. Despite her injuries, she was awarded a medical waiver to continue serving in the Illinois Army National Guard for another ten years until she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2014. Duckworth ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, then served as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and as assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from 2009 to 2011. In 2012, Duckworth was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served two terms. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, defeating Republican incumbent Mark Kirk. Duckworth is the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, the first person born in Thailand elected to Congress, the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, the first female double amputee in the Senate, and the first senator to give birth while in office. She is the second Asian American woman to serve in the Senate, after Mazie Hirono. Duckworth serves on the Senate Armed Services; Commerce, Science, & Transportation; Foreign Relations; and Veterans' Affairs Committees.