Tammy Duckworth

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.

The American Dream I believe in is one that provides anyone willing to work hard enough with the opportunity to succeed.

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.

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.

I don't ever want to be sad about my life.

The power of the ADA is that it ended up changing my life long before I ever imagined it would.