Army Maj. L. Tammy Duckworth got a standing ovation when she appeared on stage at a women's leadership conference even before she spoke.

The Iraq war helicopter pilot, with no right leg and a titanium prosthesis where her lower left leg used to be, accepts such accolades as a representative of all U.S. soldiers in uniform.

But the McKinley High School and University of Hawai'i graduate — making her first homecoming to Hawai'i since her combat injuries — confessed she gets a little uncomfortable when people come up to her and, in her words, "thank me for getting blown up."

"Frankly, getting blown up wasn't a lot of fun, and wasn't my choice," she jokingly told the audience at the governor's second annual International Women's Leadership Conference in Waikiki.

She's moved past that day in November last year when a rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG, exploded against her Black Hawk, severed one leg, left the other hanging by a thread, and splintered her right arm.

These days, she's got too much to work on, like her continued rehabilitation so she can get back in the cockpit.

The long road back has been challenging and frustrating, but Duckworth, 36, who has lived in Illinois for the past 15 years and is part of the Illinois Army National Guard, said she has been lucky that she hasn't experienced deep depression.

When she woke up in a hospital and found out her legs were gone, "I was fine with it. I don't know why that is," she said. "Maybe I'll get PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) 10 years down the road."

Much of it has to do with her sense of duty and service to country, and her incredible outlook is part of the reason she was invited to the conference.

About 400 women gathered for the two-day conference at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel to hear women leaders from Hawai'i, Washington, D.C., Arizona, Philadelphia, Virginia, China, Japan, Iraq and Israel.

Gov. Linda Lingle said Duckworth was faced with a catastrophic injury, and it's her response to it that has set her apart.

"When you think about it, that's what life is — how you play the cards you're dealt," Lingle said. "And to have someone like Major Duckworth here, who never expected these would be the cards she'd have to play, she had to make a decision ... and she's chosen a way that's going to inspire thousands of people all over the world."

Duckworth, who was born in Thailand, was the third speaker in a group that included Danielle Conway Jones, an associate professor of law at UH who related how her mother, at age 46, went to law school and later became a judge, and Paula Nirschel, founder of The Initiative to Educate Afghan Women.

Sachi Braden of Honolulu, president of Sachi Hawaii, Pacific Century Properties LLC, said the gathering was valuable for women young and old.

"These are accomplished women who have a strong, strong commitment and achieved so much in so many walks of life," Braden said. "It gives us such a boost."

The inspiration Duckworth conveys comes in part from her matter-of-fact acceptance of what has befallen her, and her desire and belief that she can return to the cockpit of an Army Black Hawk helicopter.

She and her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, a signal company captain in the National Guard who hasn't been mobilized for active duty, are in Hawai'i on their first visit since Duckworth was injured.

Her mother lives in Pearl City, and Duckworth and her husband someday want to buy land, possibly on the Big Island, and build a house.

"I'm just gonna hit the waves, see if I can swim in the ocean again," Duckworth said. "I just started learning to swim again. My body hangs differently in the water. It's strange to swim without legs, so it's going to be interesting."

Changes in life in so many ways began at the end of a long day of missions north of Baghdad on Nov. 12, 2004, when she first heard the "tap, tap, tap" of small-arms fire against the fuselage, and then the cockpit exploded in an orange fireball.

"I thought I was working the pedals and I was getting frustrated because the tail of the aircraft wasn't responding to me, and I didn't know why," she said.

She was so focused on the instruments she didn't know her legs were all but gone. A crew member later told her he found her right leg in the aircraft.

"I think I'm OK because when I was hit, I continued to try and fly my aircraft," she said, adding her first concern was her crew. "It gives me a sense of, not satisfaction, but knowing that if I had died that day, I would have died fighting till the very end, which is all I could ask of myself, and because of that, I'm OK with not having my legs."

Speaking to the women at the conference, Duckworth, who works for Rotary International, said in both civilian and military worlds, there is the need for people who are "dedicated to a mission," whether in business, or volunteering for PTA or at a hospital.

"I'm an American soldier. I serve the people of the United States," she said, "and this was a sacrifice that I was willing to make for my organization."

Duckworth appeared in a wheelchair, but only because the long flight made one of her prosthetic legs uncomfortable while walking. She can do a quarter-mile in six minutes, and is improving with continued rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

She has testified before a Senate committee on veterans benefits, and she can bring a Black Hawk to a hover in a simulator and do basic traffic patterns. "I think I can do it (fly again)," she said.

Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, head of the Hawai'i National Guard, is a believer.

"In my opinion, it's not a matter of if she'll be medically qualified (to fly), but when," Lee said. "If she gets medically qualified, there's an Army Black Hawk in the Hawai'i Army National Guard with her name on it."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.