Thai-born heroine wins US primary
Thailand-born Ladda "Tammy" Duckworth, a former US Army Black Hawk pilot who lost both legs to enemy ground fire in Iraq, won a Democratic Party nomination for Congress earlier this week.
Ladda defeated businesswoman Christine Cegelis to become the party's nominee to retake the seat in the 6th Congressional District, held by 32-year Republican Representative Henry Hyde. Ladda, 37 grew up in several countries in Southeast Asia, where her father, Franklin Duckworth, worked for the United Nations and international companies. Tammy's mother, Lamai Sompornpairin, is a native of Thailand. The cockpit of the helicopter Tammy was co-piloting in November 2004 was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. At the age of 16, Tammy and her family moved to Hawaii, where she finished high school and attended college. Tammy followed a long family tradition, going back to the Revolutionary War, of serving in the military. Her late father fought as a US Marine in World War II and Vietnam. She joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) in 1990 as a graduate student in Washington, DC, and was commissioned into the Army Reserve in 1992 in Illinois. She decided to become a helicopter pilot because it was one of the only combat jobs available to women.
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