Department of Housing and Urban Development to help end Veteran homelessness, worked to address the unique challenges faced by female as well as Native American Veterans and created the Office of Online Communications to improve the VA’s accessibility, especially among young Veterans. In 2009, President Obama appointed Duckworth as an Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs, where she coordinated a joint initiative with the U.S. After she recovered, she became Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, where she helped create a tax credit for employers that hire Veterans, established a first-in-the-nation 24/7 Veterans crisis hotline and developed innovative programs to improve Veterans’ access to housing and health care. Senator Duckworth spent the next year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she quickly became an advocate for her fellow Soldiers. On November 12, 2004, her helicopter was hit by an RPG and she lost her legs and partial use of her right arm. In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard. Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the U.S. Duckworth served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years before retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2014.
Department of Veterans Affairs who was among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S.Senator Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War Veteran, Purple Heart recipient and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S.