Staff Sgt. Murnane, a native of Salisbury, Md., is a member of the Army National Guard’s Special Forces team. His right leg was amputated below the knee in November 2009 after he was injured by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan. This August, he became the first guardsman to jump from an aircraft with a prosthetic limb. He continues to be treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Were you nervous before the jump?

Absolutely. Before going up, there was a whole bunch of stuff in my mind. Initially, I didn’t know if the safety measures I had put in place were going to hold the prosthetic on. I was kind of worried that I might lose it, so I actually ended up duct-taping the bottom of my pants around the prosthesis so even if the system failed I had a fail-safe.