Today, Tammy Duckworth is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a candidate for the Senate.

Eleven years ago, she was an Army soldier flying Blackhawk helicopters in Iraq. On the day after Veterans Day 2004, a grenade struck her helicopter. The blast destroyed her legs and severely damaged an arm. Those injuries and her experience as a soldier made her want to become involved in politics, she says.

“So I got this second chance at life, and I see my time now as a bonus. And that’s really allowed me to speak up without fear. And stand up for what I believe in for what we all believe in. After all, what are the folks who don’t agree with me and my political adversaries going to do blow me up?” Duckworth is part of a small but growing force in U.S. politics: veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress includes 25 lawmakers out of 535 who are veterans of America’s two most recent wars. In the history of veterans in Congress, that number is both small and large.