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Amputees given Segways to ease mobility

Tech. Sgt. Adam Popp just got a lot faster.

After returning from Afghanistan last year, where a makeshift bomb blasted his right leg near Forward Operating Base Gardez, the airman encountered the same options all leg amputees face: wheelchairs and prosthetics.

Now he owns a Segway, those upright two-wheeled electric vehicles favored by cops and tourists. Popp was among 29 injured service members to receive one Wednesday from the Florida-based charity Disability Rights Advocates for Technology.

Segways, essentially wheeled platforms with handlebars, stay balanced with an internal gyroscope and can travel more than 12 mph.

The group’s “Segs 4 Vets” campaign has delivered more than 150 Segways to injured military members. Though unaffiliated with Segway’s makers, they want to recast the vehicle’s image as a $5,500 toy into a blessing to the thousands of soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors who have lost limbs to the signature weapon of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan: improvised explosive devices.

“Unfortunately, they’re still considered a novelty,” said Fred Kaplan, one of the group’s co-founders. But they can be a great help to amputees. An injured service member riding a Segway with his metallic prosthetic leg concealed behind jeans appears perfectly able. “Their disability totally disappears,” Kaplan said.

For “Segs 4 Vets,” the Pentagon has waived rules barring military personnel from receiving expensive gifts, said Christine Black, a volunteer with the charity. The group buys the vehicles at wholesale — roughly $5,000 a pop — and typically spends another $1,200 on personal modifications and training for the injured vets.

The project is fueled by donations. They’re continuing to shore up money to field the hundreds of applications for Segways that are submitted at http://www.segs4vets.org.

After receiving the Segway, Popp returned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center with his new wheels. He hopes to continue as an instructor in his career field: explosive ordnance disposal specialist.