Review: Tammy Duckworth illustrates a bold refusal to quit

By JEFF ROWE
March 30, 2021

“Every Day Is a Gift: A Memoir,” Tammy Duckworth (Twelve/Hachette Book Group)

Her fellow crew members initially thought Tammy Duckworth had been killed when a rocket-propelled grenade punched a hole in the helicopter she was flying in Iraq and exploded, ripping off her legs and severely wounding her right arm.

But Duckworth hadn’t endured rough circumstances as a child overseas and then as a high schooler in Hawaii to be deterred by that loss or any other obstacle.

Hers is an enduring story of how unfailing determination and a refusal to quit can overcome the most difficult challenges. “When the only obstacle is effort,” Duckworth writes, she will “move heaven and earth.”

Duckworth writes in her memoir that she never thought the war in Iraq was either “necessary or wise” but she followed orders to deploy. Duckworth’s persona is deeply rooted in Army lore; its values “the core of my being.”

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