The McKinley High and University of Hawai'i graduate told the Senate Veterans Committee that the VA department faces the challenge of providing high-quality care to wounded people as they move on to civilian life.

"As disabled soldiers transition to veteran status, we will look to the VA to provide continued access to healthcare, health technology, assisted-living devices and social services," said Duckworth, who was piloting a Black Hawk helicopter on Nov. 12, 2004, when she nearly lost her life.

The explosion took her legs and almost completely destroyed her right arm, breaking it in three places and tearing tissue from the back side of it.

A plea for resources

Duckworth, 36, a member of the Illinois Army National Guard, is being fitted with prosthetic legs and is undergoing rehabilitation on her arm — now held together with titanium plates and screws — at Walter Reed.

Sen. Daniel K. Akaka

Sen. Barack Obama

"This is a challenge that the VA can meet if it is given enough resources and if it listens to disabled service members and puts forth the effort to meet our needs," Duckworth said.

The committee was exploring issues faced by military people who have been injured in the war and others without apparent injuries who may later seek VA health services.

"All service members, including the men and women who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, should have nothing less than a seamless reintegration into society and their lives," said Sen. Daniel K. Akaka of Hawai'i, the top Democrat on the committee.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said the 11,285 wounded in Iraq so far are "our heroes, and they deserve our greatest gratitude."

"I don't think it's sufficient for us just to help our veterans achieve some sense of normalcy," he said. "We want to make sure they thrive."

Treatment strategy hit

A report by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the Defense Department and VA are working on a way to share information on service members with serious injuries transitioning to civilian life. In the meantime, the VA is relying on its regional offices to coordinate with staff at military medical centers to learn about the injured.

"Such informal agreements can break down," said the report released at the hearing.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, chairman of the committee, said the current practice of treating returning wounded service members only at medical facilities in Washington, Georgia and Texas might not be right.

Instead, the Defense Department and VA should find smarter ways to use their facilities across the country to bring these men and women closer to home for recovery, said Craig.

"I am hearing, albeit anecdotally, that for many of those who are ultimately discharged, life in the months and weeks leading up to that discharge consists of times spent away from home, families, children and the very support structure they will need to truly recover," he said.

Jonathan B. Perlin, acting VA undersecretary for health, said the agency has adapted many existing programs, improved its outreach to veterans and upgraded care for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

"VA's commitment to returning combat veterans is firm," Perlin said.

Funding cuts feared

Duckworth, who was promoted to major shortly after arriving at Walter Reed, said that she believed she was lucky to have so many people, nonprofit organizations and government agencies trying to help her.

"It's almost an embarrassment of riches, but it's help and assistance that is there for us because of the efforts of previous generations of veterans who did not get as great a treatment as we are getting now," Duckworth said.

Duckworth is the daughter of Frank Duckworth, who died Jan. 28 and was buried March 8 in Arlington National Cemetery, and Lami Duckworth of Pearl City.

Duckworth, whose civilian job is with Rotary International, said she wanted to stay in the National Guard and fly helicopters again. Prosthetics technology could make that possible.

Duckworth said she was concerned that funding for the VA's cutting-edge research in fields such as in prosthetics, now fueled by the needs of hundreds of wounded from the current war, would be cut back in times of peace.