Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it was over 10 years ago, and there was a State of the Union Address about to take place. As Members of the Senate were given a ticket for a guest to attend, my staff came to me and said: Who would you like to invite? I said: Why don't we call out to Walter Reed Hospital and see if there is an Illinois soldier there who is physically up to coming up to Capitol Hill for the occasion? They said: We will check it out. They came back to me an hour or two later and said: We found a veteran. She is a member of the Illinois National Guard. She is recuperating at Walter Reed, and she can attend. I said: Fine. I look forward to meeting her. The night of the State of the Union Address, they told me that the officer from the Guard was in my office, and we opened the doors, and in came Tammy Duckworth. Tammy was in a wheelchair and full dress uniform, being pushed by her husband Bryan, also a member of the Illinois National Guard. This was in the month of January, toward the end of the month. With a big smile on her face, she told me the story of how, as a pilot of a helicopter with the Illinois Guard, she was shot down over Iraq in the first week of November--this was January--the first week of November, and she had gone through a series of surgeries. The result of that was she had lost both of her legs. At the time, her right arm was still in a sling, and there was a question about whether or not she would lose that as well.…”