How many combat missions did Tammy Duckworth complete and what were their objectives?

1. The basic record: deployed Black Hawk pilot in 2004

All available biographical sources agree Duckworth was deployed to Iraq in 2004 as a UH‑60 Black Hawk pilot with the Illinois Army National Guard and that she flew combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom; those profiles describe her as “among the first handful of Army women to fly combat missions” but do not quantify how many sorties she flew ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

2. The shoot‑down that ended her combat flying

Reporting across official and archival outlets records that on November 12, 2004 Duckworth’s Black Hawk was struck by a rocket‑propelled grenade; she sustained catastrophic injuries, lost both legs and partial use of her right arm, and received a Purple Heart. Sources treat that incident as the terminal event for her Iraq combat flights ^{[1] [4] [5]}.

3. What sources say — and what they don’t

Multiple institutional biographies and military profiles repeat the same construction — she “flew combat missions” and was “among the first women” to do so — but none of the supplied documents specify a total number of combat missions flown or enumerate distinct mission objectives ^{[1] [2] [3] [6]}. Available sources do not mention a count of missions or a mission‑by‑mission breakdown.

4. Typical flight roles for Black Hawk pilots in Iraq (context from reporting)

While the provided sources do not give Duckworth’s mission log, they do identify her aircraft type and unit role; Black Hawks in Operation Iraqi Freedom commonly performed troop transport, medevac support, logistics and utility tasks in combat zones — the kinds of missions classified as “combat missions” in many military biographies — which explains why profiles describe her as a combat‑mission pilot without listing specifics ^{[1] [6]}. However, the supplied sources do not spell out which of those roles she personally performed on each sortie.

5. Why public bios emphasize “first women” rather than mission counts

Senate, VA and veterans‑oriented biographies emphasize historical and symbolic elements — being among the first Army women to fly combat missions, Purple Heart status, and her recovery and advocacy — rather than operational minutiae such as sortie counts or classified mission details. That editorial choice is present across the Duckworth Senate biography, military archive entries and museum summaries ^{[1] [4] [3]}.

6. Competing perspectives and limitations in the record

There is no contradictory reporting in the provided set disputing Duckworth’s combat service or Purple Heart; all sources corroborate her deployment, aircraft type and the November 12, 2004 shoot‑down ^{[1] [4] [5]}. At the same time, the absence of mission counts or objectives in these sources is a clear limitation: the public biographies and institutional summaries supplied do not aim to be operational logs and therefore omit granular sortie data ^{[2] [6]}.

7. How to get the missing details if you need them

The documents here do not include mission logs, unit after‑action reports or Duckworth’s personal flight records, so they cannot answer “how many” or list each mission’s objective ^{[1] [2]}. To obtain that information you would need unit flight records, official military personnel files, or contemporaneous squadron mission logs — records not present among the supplied sources. Available sources do not mention those documents.

Summary: authoritative bios and military archives uniformly state that Duckworth flew combat missions as a 2004 Black Hawk pilot in Iraq and that her aircraft was shot down on November 12, 2004 — but none of the provided sources give a numerical tally of missions or a mission‑by‑mission objectives list ^{[1] [4] [5]}.