WE'RE WITH THE COWARD:

On Nov. 12, Marines were battling insurgents for control of Fallujah, a hotbed of militant resistance, about 40 miles west of Baghdad. It would end up being the deadliest month for coalition forces. Reports listed 141 killed during the 30 days.

For Duckworth's crew, the day had been long but uneventful. They left early from their base at Camp Anaconda and squeezed in a stir fry and chocolate milk shake lunch and Christmas shopping during a stop near the Baghdad airport. Next to her in the cockpit that day sat Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg, 39, a veteran of the Persian Gulf War, who had been pulled from his civilian life as a Des Peres public safety officer and placed on active duty.

The two hadn't flown together in a while. His wry sense of humor made him one of Duckworth's favorites to fly with.

As the more experienced aviator, Milberg served as the pilot in command. As such, he ran the mission, monitored the aircraft's systems, talked to air traffic control and other aircraft, read the maps, checked the course and called out obstacles. Meanwhile, Duckworth took on the less intensive duty of flying the aircraft. But one of the reasons she liked Milberg was that he was an excellent trainer who was more than willing to teach others. On this day, he turned command over to Duckworth and took the controls himself.

Black Hawks typically fly in pairs and trade off on who flies lead. As the two helicopters lifted off that afternoon, Duckworth's aircraft, Chalk One, maneuvered into the lead or "missile bait" position for the 25-minute flight to Balad.

A bright sun shone in the western sky and cast long shadows across the unending tans of the desert. The searing heat of the Iraqi summer had passed. It was about 4:30 p.m., the temperature reached only into the 90s, and the cooler afternoon air made for smooth flying weather. The helicopter skimmed along at 130 mph, just 10 feet above the tops of palm groves that sprinkled the countryside. They were 10 minutes from home. Duckworth busied herself trying to make one final call to flight controllers at Taji before she switched radio frequencies to her base at Balad.

Just then a distinctive metallic tap, tap, tap could be heard, bullets against metal.

She turned to tell Milberg they'd been hit by enemy fire.

He never heard the words.

Just then, the rocket-propelled grenade pierced the Plexiglas window beneath Duckworth's feet and erupted in an enormous yellow-orange fireball in the cockpit. [...]

Duckworth graduated from the University of Hawaii and, thinking she might want to work in the Foreign Service, moved to Washington to attend George Washington University and study international affairs. She soon noticed that all of her closest friends were active-duty or retired military. She felt attracted by their values of duty and honor and country, the same values her father had instilled in her. [...]

After she was commissioned as an officer, Duckworth requested assignment to a combat arms branch, even though the Army didn't require women to do so. She felt it unfair not to be held to the same standard as the men, who were required to include a combat arms branch among their preferred choices.

She wanted to be considered a soldier, not a female soldier.

Determined to win one of the few coveted seats to train on the Black Hawk, she relied on her father's teachings about hard work. She spent extra hours at night on flight simulators to hone her skills. She finished near the top of her 1993 flight school class at Fort Rucker in Alabama. She was the only woman. Certainly, her father would be proud. Instead, he told her it still wasn't the Marines. [...]

In October 2003, Duckworth was in the process of turning over command to one of her lieutenants when she learned that the unit was being called up. Duckworth, meanwhile, was to be transferred to another company that wasn't being activated.

She was crestfallen and pleaded with her battalion commander not to be left behind.

I don't want to be one of the only aviation officers in the state of Illinois to stand here and wave goodbye to the companies. I want to go with you, she told him.

Eventually, state Guard leaders determined that soldiers were needed to fill other vacant jobs in the battalion. So she would get to go to Iraq after all. She went to Fort Knox for training.

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