In May 1991, after the liberation of Kuwait in the first Persian Gulf War, Jay Humphries stepped on a landmine. He lost his lower legs.

Now, 12 years later, he can ride a bike through the woods.

His sense of recovery between two likely futures started with a face to face look at the prosthetic (artificial limb) he was told could help him walk. It was, he thought, completely uninspiring.

After earning a degree at Johns Hopkins University he now works for Seattle Systems, a Poulsbo company that manufactures prosthetic limbs for men, women and children.

“The reason why I chose to get into the business and chose to become a mechanical engineer is because the ones given to me were archaic,” he said. “They were wooden for god’s sake. I thought, they really expect me to use this? I can do better than that.”

When he was first injured, Humphries, now 32, said he didn’t hold out much hope for leading a normal life. But as he continued to live it, he realized he still had the same choices — do something or nothing.

“I’ve become more active,” he said. “It’s been a long road to recovery after 12 years. If you sit there and let yourself become stagnate and sedentary it progressively gets worse.

“I realized I wanted to ride a bike and jump out of an airplane again. Most of my goals in life are to improve the situation for others. And, selfishly, of course, I wanted to be right on the cutting edge of what was happening (technologically).”

After the Desert Storm cease-fire, Humphries’ job as an Army scout was “pushing south of Turkey, essentially chasing Iraqi soldiers out of the area.”

Speaking March 21, as US and British troops moved across Iraq, he said wishes he could be there, helping further the goals of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“It’s about time. We needed to go in,” Humphries said. “If I hadn’t been injured I’d probably be there right now. I really enjoyed my job, who I was and what I was learning.”

In 1991, after being flown from hostile territory to Turkey and then on to Germany his right leg was amputated just above the knee; his left leg was amputated just below the knee. The knee is one of the most complicated joints in the body, Humphries said. And it’s hard to replicate.

“With the way technology is at the moment, if you lose a leg just below the knee you are in pretty good shape. There’s really nothing you can’t do, that you could not do before.”

But that doesn’t mean he decided he could ride a bike again and just did so. There was a long period of adjustment and adaptation.

“First of all, you’ve lost part of your limbs and you want to be back on your feet,” he said. “That happens, but you have to get used to bearing weight on parts of your body that aren’t used to it. Over time, you never really get used to it but it becomes less of an irritation.”

He says the limbs are akin to wearing “very uncomfortable ski boots,” yet they are a part of him. They are not something he tries to shelter from others.

“I hardly wear the cosmetic shells,” he said. “I don’t really care what it looks like. It doesn’t matter. I don’t talk about it unless I’m asked.”

(Temple A. Stark is a free-lance writer living in Kent. Reach him at writer@templestark.com).