Following in the footsteps of her father and ancestors, who served in the
Revolutionary War,
World War II, and the
Vietnam War,[SUP]
[4][/SUP] Duckworth joined the Army
Reserve Officers' Training Corps as a graduate student at George Washington University in 1990. She became a
commissioned officer in the
United States Army Reserve in 1992 and chose to fly
helicopters because it was one of the few combat jobs open to women. As a member of the Army Reserve, she went to
flight school and joined the Illinois Army National Guard in 1996.[SUP]
[7][/SUP]
Duckworth was working towards a PhD in political science at
Northern Illinois University with research interests in the
political economy and
public health in southeast Asia when she was deployed to Iraq in 2004.[SUP]
[8][/SUP] Duckworth lost her right leg near the hip and her left leg below the knee[SUP]
[9][/SUP] from injuries sustained on November 12, 2004, when the
UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a
rocket propelled grenade fired by
Iraqi insurgents.[SUP]
[10][/SUP] She is the first female double amputee from the Iraq war.[SUP]
[1][/SUP] The explosion "almost completely destroyed her right arm, breaking it in three places and tearing tissue from the back side of it."[SUP]
[11][/SUP] Duckworth received a
Purple Heart on December 3 and was promoted to Major on December 21 at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she was presented with an
Air Medal and
Army Commendation Medal.[SUP]
[10][/SUP]
