EHITCH
Pre-takeoff checklist
Tammy Duckworth is a member of the Chicago Area Chapter of the 99s. If you would like to write her a note to tell her you are thinking of her and that you are sure she will fly again, I know she would especially appreciate encouragement from her fellow pilots. Please drop her a line at:
Maj. Tammy Duckworth
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Ave NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001
I'm pasting in the first page of a 3-page story from today's Tribune. Friends and family report links to the Tribune often don't work without a password, but you can also try the link at the bottom of this post.
Elizabeth
**********
To fly again
Injured Army National Guard helicopter pilot holds fast to her dream
By Mary Ann Fergus
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Two weeks after a grenade blew off her legs and shattered her right arm, Army National Guard Maj. Tammy Duckworth set a goal: to fly again.
It is an ambitious dream; there have been only a handful of amputee pilots in military history. She says she knows of none with an injured right arm.
Perhaps the most famous is Douglas Bader, a World War II fighter pilot and double amputee with the Royal Air Force. Air Force Lt. Col. Andrew Lourake, who has visited Duckworth, returned to flight status last year after he lost a leg in a motorcycle accident.
Their stories buoy the hopes and dreams of a woman who talks more of her luck than her losses.
"After I was hit, everything that I needed to get by was given to me," she says. "There were literally times when my life was in the balance and I got what I needed."
On the third-floor amputee ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Duckworth struggles to build her runway back to the sky. Twice a day, she exercises her right arm and hand. She slices a loaf of fake bread, tightens her biceps, bends her forearms at a 90-degree angle and pushes them back as far as she can.
She has been here since November, just a couple of days after a rocket-propelled grenade hit her Black Hawk helicopter.
In an instant, the life of the 37-year-old Hoffman Estates woman changed forever. But in many ways, it stayed the same.
Same soft brown eyes and bright smile. Same positive attitude. Some guts and grit.
In therapy, she clenches her right hand into a fist, then releases and flexes her fingers.
Repeat, says the therapist, and the soldier makes a fist.
Duckworth spends afternoons rebuilding her lower body and can now walk with her prostheses for as long as 45 minutes. But overcoming her leg loss will be the easier part of her goal. Her chances of flying for the Army will likely hinge on her right arm's strength and flexibility.
In Iraq, Duckworth, then a captain in the National Guard's 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment, had planned and assigned missions since her unit was deployed in March 2004. Her time in the air was infrequent, so she was happy to be flying Nov. 12.
Duckworth piloted the helicopter much of the busy day as the crew moved troops and equipment around Baghdad, supporting battle 20 miles away in Fallujah.
The Black Hawk, flying about 138 m.p.h., was 10 minutes from destination at Camp Anaconda, a military base in Balad, when Duckworth heard the metallic tick-tick-tick from small-arms fire.
"I think we've been hit," she remembers telling her co-pilot.
The grenade hit the lower part of the windshield and exploded below her feet. She saw a huge fireball emerge from below and spread upward, just inches from her face and through the top of the helicopter. As the aircraft shook wildly, she tried to land, but the pedals -- and her legs -- were gone. She didn't realize it; she felt no pain.
Her co-pilot landed the helicopter in an over-grown field. Duckworth watched as strands of lush green grass, nearly 6 feet tall, came up through the hole in the helicopter. Then she passed out.
From there, Duckworth said, a series of heroic acts, medical expertise and something else -- fate or coincidence -- saved her life.
Doctors rushed her from Iraq to Germany to Walter Reed, where they thought she'd have the best chance to keep her right arm. Her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, was there when she arrived Sunday at the ICU...."
-- more at
http://www.chicagotribune.com/featu...y12,1,1763711.story?coll=chi-leisuretempo-hed
Maj. Tammy Duckworth
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Ave NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001
I'm pasting in the first page of a 3-page story from today's Tribune. Friends and family report links to the Tribune often don't work without a password, but you can also try the link at the bottom of this post.
Elizabeth
**********
To fly again
Injured Army National Guard helicopter pilot holds fast to her dream
By Mary Ann Fergus
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Two weeks after a grenade blew off her legs and shattered her right arm, Army National Guard Maj. Tammy Duckworth set a goal: to fly again.
It is an ambitious dream; there have been only a handful of amputee pilots in military history. She says she knows of none with an injured right arm.
Perhaps the most famous is Douglas Bader, a World War II fighter pilot and double amputee with the Royal Air Force. Air Force Lt. Col. Andrew Lourake, who has visited Duckworth, returned to flight status last year after he lost a leg in a motorcycle accident.
Their stories buoy the hopes and dreams of a woman who talks more of her luck than her losses.
"After I was hit, everything that I needed to get by was given to me," she says. "There were literally times when my life was in the balance and I got what I needed."
On the third-floor amputee ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Duckworth struggles to build her runway back to the sky. Twice a day, she exercises her right arm and hand. She slices a loaf of fake bread, tightens her biceps, bends her forearms at a 90-degree angle and pushes them back as far as she can.
She has been here since November, just a couple of days after a rocket-propelled grenade hit her Black Hawk helicopter.
In an instant, the life of the 37-year-old Hoffman Estates woman changed forever. But in many ways, it stayed the same.
Same soft brown eyes and bright smile. Same positive attitude. Some guts and grit.
In therapy, she clenches her right hand into a fist, then releases and flexes her fingers.
Repeat, says the therapist, and the soldier makes a fist.
Duckworth spends afternoons rebuilding her lower body and can now walk with her prostheses for as long as 45 minutes. But overcoming her leg loss will be the easier part of her goal. Her chances of flying for the Army will likely hinge on her right arm's strength and flexibility.
In Iraq, Duckworth, then a captain in the National Guard's 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment, had planned and assigned missions since her unit was deployed in March 2004. Her time in the air was infrequent, so she was happy to be flying Nov. 12.
Duckworth piloted the helicopter much of the busy day as the crew moved troops and equipment around Baghdad, supporting battle 20 miles away in Fallujah.
The Black Hawk, flying about 138 m.p.h., was 10 minutes from destination at Camp Anaconda, a military base in Balad, when Duckworth heard the metallic tick-tick-tick from small-arms fire.
"I think we've been hit," she remembers telling her co-pilot.
The grenade hit the lower part of the windshield and exploded below her feet. She saw a huge fireball emerge from below and spread upward, just inches from her face and through the top of the helicopter. As the aircraft shook wildly, she tried to land, but the pedals -- and her legs -- were gone. She didn't realize it; she felt no pain.
Her co-pilot landed the helicopter in an over-grown field. Duckworth watched as strands of lush green grass, nearly 6 feet tall, came up through the hole in the helicopter. Then she passed out.
From there, Duckworth said, a series of heroic acts, medical expertise and something else -- fate or coincidence -- saved her life.
Doctors rushed her from Iraq to Germany to Walter Reed, where they thought she'd have the best chance to keep her right arm. Her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, was there when she arrived Sunday at the ICU...."
-- more at
http://www.chicagotribune.com/featu...y12,1,1763711.story?coll=chi-leisuretempo-hed
