The husband of Tammy Duckworth is being deployed to Iraq, where his wife lost her legs in a helicopter crash before making a bid for Congress.
Brian Bowlsbey, 39, a longtime Illinois Guardsman, has not been sent there previously.
[..]"It's not something that we're really eager to do, but it's part of the job and we've trained for it for 19 years," he said yesterday, noting that he long ago fulfilled his requirement of four years of service as an officer. "If you believe in the United States you stay in and you keep doing it and you accept the risk."
Duckworth[..] is currently director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs.
[..]"I knew, sooner or later, there just aren't that many (eligible) people and I knew I'm one of the only ones who haven't been and some of the Guard have been twice," he said. "It's going to be difficult and we've done some planning, although I want to emphasize, everyone has these life issues, everyone that deploys has them."
By Nicole Belle
— February 15, 2007