CHICAGO—Jill Morgenthaler's 30-year Army career took her to Korea, Germany, Bosnia and Iraq.
Now, the 53-year-old retired Army Reserve colonel and suburban mother of two has embarked on a new mission at home: running for the Democratic nomination to the seat held by Republican Rep. Peter Roskam.
She has the backing of someone Roskam is familiar with -- Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs in combat. In 2006, Roskam edged out Duckworth, 51 percent to 49 percent, in one of the nation's most hotly contested congressional races.
"We female vets are a tough bunch and we stand up for what we believe in," said Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs and a major in the Illinois Army National Guard.
Morgenthaler is running in the Feb. 5 primary in the 6th Congressional District in Chicago's northwest suburbs against Stan Jagla, a 45-year-old Roselle businessman who says he's currently between jobs.
Roskam has no Republican primary opponent, and a spokesman said the congressman wouldn't comment until his Democratic challenger was determined.
Roskam spent millions to defeat Duckworth in their hard-fought race, and the National Republican Congressional Committee ran television ads portraying Duckworth as liberal on immigration issues.
The race also drew attention because of Duckworth's personal story -- she was a pilot who was gravely wounded when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq.
Morgenthaler's service in Iraq was different. She was a military spokeswoman during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004, when leaked photos showed U.S. soldiers posing with detainees, some of them naked and in compromising conditions.
In June 2004, Morgenthaler wrote about it on her blog, "GI Jill's Adventures in Baghdad."
"As people get upset about Abu Ghraib, one thing that should never be forgotten: these are men who have murdered Americans and would continue to murder Americans if given the opportunity," she wrote.
Morgenthaler said she was not trying to be a military apologist, but was responding to suggestions in the Arab media that Americans were torturing innocent people.
"I would never apologize what those seven (U.S. soldiers) did. Not only what they did was totally wrong to the prisoners, it was wrong just to our nation. It really hurt the good we were doing," she said. Seven enlisted soldiers were convicted of crimes at the prison.
Jagla doesn't like to talk about his competition. He says voters must decide if Morgenthaler's connection to Abu Ghraib should be a campaign issue.
But Morgenthaler said concerns about the Iraq war have been eclipsed by the economy, although the two are entwined because of the billions of dollars spent on the war.
"We do need to come up with a strategy and a way of getting Iraqis to step up to the plate, the allies in the area stabilizing the region and then us bringing our young people home in a smart safe way -- safe for them but also safe for our nation -- and start returning that money back here," she said.
Jagla said the U.S. should "cut our losses and leave," with American troops replaced by U.N. peacekeepers.
Morgenthaler quit her job as Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's point person on public safety and homeland security to run for Congress. She also worked for more than a dozen years at the Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago in a variety of roles, including disaster preparedness.
While Morgenthaler hopes to build on the support that Duckworth had in her election, she knows she can't be seen as Duckworth's clone if she beats Jagla for a chance to unseat Roskam.
"My biggest challenge is for people to meet me ... so there isn't a stereotype: 'Oh, another Tammy Duckworth,'" said Morgenthaler.
