Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

August 23, 2012

Female combat veterans campaigning for Congress

'I personally consider this just a continuation of my service to my country,' says Tammy Duckworth, in her second bid for an Illinois congressional seat.

Donna Cassata / The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — One flew an A-10 Warthog over Iraq and Afghanistan. Another was part of the 29th Infantry Brigade's medical operations near Baghdad. A third lost both legs and partial use of an arm in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Iraq.

All are war veterans aiming to serve in Congress. All reflect an evolving U.S. military. All are female.

After more than a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, dozens of military veterans — Republicans and Democrats — are running for Congress this election year as voters have shown a fresh enthusiasm for candidates with no elected experience. This year, as the military has opened more jobs to women closer to the front lines, several of those veterans are females with battlefield scars and pioneering accomplishments.

Tammy Duckworth was a captain in the Army National Guard, sent to Iraq in 2004 and injured in November of that year when the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was struck but landed safely. In her second bid for Congress, the Democrat and former assistant secretary at Veterans Affairs hopes to wrest a northern Illinois seat from Republican Rep. Joe Walsh, an outspoken tea party freshman whose comments have stirred controversy.

Republicans and Democrats consider the 44-year-old Duckworth the favorite.

Tulsi Gabbard was a specialist with the medical unit of the 29th Brigade of the Army National Guard and a military police platoon leader who helped train the Kuwaiti national guard's counterterrorism unit. The 31-year-old stunned Hawaii's political establishment earlier this month with a come-from-behind win in the Democratic primary.

The former Honolulu City councilwoman is favored in the Democratic-leaning district in November.

Martha McSally, an Air Force Academy graduate, is the first women to fly a fighter aircraft in combat and the first to command a fighter squadron. She is expected to clinch the Republican nomination in Arizona's Aug. 28 primary and likely will face Democratic Rep. Ron Barber in a redrawn district once represented by Gabrielle Giffords.

That expected match-up is considered a toss-up.

"We're breaking barriers and there's more that needs to come," Duckworth said in an interview. "Women who have worn the uniform (serving) in Congress will help nudge things along."

McSally quickly points out that the oath for a military officer — to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic — is the same for a member of Congress.

"I served my country in uniform for 26 years," the 46-year-old said in an interview. "I personally consider this (congressional bid) just a continuation of my service to my country."

Forty years ago, military service was a standard line on nearly every lawmakers' biography as generations of veterans who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam won seats in Congress. In 1969-71, 398 veterans served in the House and 69 in the Senate, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The shift to the all-volunteer force in 1973 sent those numbers plummeting and few from the military joined the congressional ranks. Today, lawmakers with service in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and the National Guard and Reserves total 88 in the House and 24 in the Senate, among them decorated World War II veteran Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war.

The numbers amount to about 22 percent of the 535-member House and Senate.

During the more than 10 years of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, women by necessity worked as medics, military police and intelligence officers and were attached to battalions of about 800 soldiers even though they couldn't be formally assigned to the unit. Many flew helicopters supporting the battalion that went out on patrol or were medics.

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