SPRINGFIELD - Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Tammy Duckworth director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs in November.

The 38-year-old Hoffman Estates resident was named to the position after she made an unsuccessful bid to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde in Congress. Duckworth is a former Army helicopter pilot who lost her legs after an attack in Iraq. Her husband, Brian Bowlsbey, leaves with his National Guard unit for a stint in Kuwait and Iraq on Thursday.

In her $102,000-per-year job, she oversees an agency that handles benefits, education and state-operated nursing home care for military veterans and their families. Last week she was in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Springfield and Bloomington. The H&R Springfield Bureau caught up with her to find out how things are going in her first few months on the job:

Q. What are you goals in your new position?

A. I'm very concerned that after this war is over in Iraq and Afghanistan that people will lose interest, and we will no longer have the groundswell of support for veterans and programs to support our veterans. At the same time, our Vietnam vets are entering the health care system. They are all reaching their mid-60s.

I'm really trying to prepare us to be able to handle a perfect storm of two different booms of populations of veterans.

Q. Any specifics for the younger veterans?

A. I certainly want to implement new post-traumatic stress disorder programs in Illinois, because I don't think there is adequate attention or funding being paid to it at the national level.

Q. What about the older veterans?

A. I want to work on getting a new home for veterans opened up in Chicago. I think a 200-bed facility in Chicago is vital because almost a third of our veterans are from the Chicago area, and yet we don't have any facility there for them.

Q. Is that something on tap for this year?

A. It's further down the road. We need to be responsible about how we fund it.

Q. You testified last week on some of the issues regarding the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A. Sen. Obama was the one who invited me to speak in 2005 when I was still a patient at Walter Reed, on the same issue. They invited me back two years later to follow up.

Q. Have you toured the existing Illinois veterans homes?

A. I have, and I plan on going back to all of them on a quarterly basis.

Q. What were your impressions?

A. They are well run, but they are understaffed. It is so important to me that the governor's budget get passed because there is an additional 104 positions for staff that will go out to my four veteran's homes.

Q. Were the buildings in good condition?

A. Our Quincy home is the oldest home we have. It was actually built to support our veterans of the Civil War. It needs work. We're constantly spending money to update it. I just had a water main break in Manteno. I certainly have issues trying to keep maintenance up on them. The LaSalle home, we're building an 80-bed expansion on that.

Q. How does your husband's deployment play into what you're doing?

A. I almost think it's harder to be the family that gets left behind than the one who is going off to war. When you're going off to war, you're just focused on doing your job. When you're left behind, you're worried about your loved one. The shoe is on the other foot, no pun intended. I think it's going to help me bring a new sensitivity to what the families are going through back here. I'll be struggling with my own things that I'll have to cope with. There are husbands who mow the lawn and do the maintenance around the house. I probably rely on my husband to do a lot more of that now that I am disabled.

Q. What are your future plans? You've been mentioned as a potential Cabinet appointee if a Democrat wins the White House. Will you run for Congress again?

A. I really feel I have a commitment and a debt to the men who carried me out of Iraq. I must live every day in honor of that sacrifice. I know that sounds really corny. But I think back to what they went through because they thought I was dead. Every day, this is bonus time, I'm going to work as hard as I can and annoy as many people as I need to in order to work for vets. As for Congress, I'll be honest and say I haven't ruled it out.

Kurt Erickson can be reached at kurt.erickson@lee.net or 789-0865.