Quotes from Tammy Duckworth

Female service members are so integrated into the military, so critical and vital to all functions of the military, from combat service support to combat support, to direct combat, that we could not go to war as a nation - we could not defend America - without our women.

In the Senate, you can become one of the nation's leading voices on the issues.

Running for Senate is a very involved process.

I think back to the 1990s, when I joined the Army, and all those peacetime years that we had, thinking, 'Will we ever go into combat?'

When I was young, my dad, a veteran who attended college on the GI Bill, lost his job at age 55 when the company he worked for was sold. My entire family pitched in - my mom took in sewing, and I got a minimum wage job after school.

Like so many women, especially military women, I waited to have children.

The summer before I started college, my parents walked everywhere instead of taking the bus. Once a week, they would hand over $10 to the university housing office, a deposit so I could move into the dorms in the fall.

I love the Army with every bone in my body.

The ADA allows persons with disabilities the opportunity to participate in the world around them.

My arm bones looked like chicken bones.

We must be an inclusive nation that respects and supports all of its citizens: a nation that doesn't give up on anyone who hasn't given up on themselves.

My therapist would be so happy to know I'm doing all this walking. They've done a great job of putting me back together, haven't they?

I actually lost both my legs. I can walk because I got really good health care.

My strength is in finding ways to make the government work for the people: finding waste, or money that is not being properly used... or finding opportunities that are out there and making them work for the community.

Sometimes it takes dealing with a disability - the trauma, the relearning, the months of rehabilitation therapy - to uncover our true abilities and how we can put them to work for us in ways we may have never imagined.

I was so proud when I was commissioned into the Army.

We should have completed the fight in Afghanistan instead of starting a new war in Iraq.

I don't know why I survived Iraq and I don't know why I made it home, but I do know that this is my second chance at life and I can do whatever I want now.

I was in Congress for six months, and they put me on blood pressure medication. I flew helicopters in combat and I was fine, and I survived 13 months in recovery in the hospital... I got to Congress, and six months later I'm on blood pressure medication. Fourteen months later, they doubled the dosage!

Student loans, Social Security, and Medicare make a difference in the lives of working families every day, and the conversation that should be taking place is how we can save these programs, not weaken them.

If you come from a military culture, and you go into see the general or the commander, and he talks to you very calmly and says, 'I'm very disappointed in you,' that's devastating.

I absolutely welcome a full investigation into the for-profit schools because I think a majority of them are predatory.

I didn't want to get pregnant while commanding an assault helicopter company and, before I knew it, I was deployed and missed out on many of my childbearing years.

I have personally seen what a devastating medical condition can cost.