There are times when Chuck Bartles feels frustrated — for example, when he is trying to get dressed or zip his fly.

He might not be able to pursue a career in federal law enforcement as he planned.

Overall, though, the 26-year-old is grateful. The Kansas University graduate student and Army reservist lost most of his right arm in Iraq, but he’s thankful he didn’t lose his life.

“I was with a guy that died. Things could have turned out a lot worse for me,” he said Friday as he sat in the apartment where he’s staying during a weeklong visit to Lawrence.

Bartles — who is right-handed and was a championship boxer in high school in South Dakota — was wounded Oct. 23 in the same explosion that injured Lawrence resident Sgt. Jared Myers. Both men are from the 418th Civil Affairs Battalion based in Belton, Mo., and were working to oversee the rebuilding of Iraq’s infrastructure.

Another passenger in their Humvee, Capt. John Teal of Mechanicsville, Va., was not so lucky. He died in the blast.

Bartles said his immediate reaction to the arm injury was a practical one: He knew he was in shock, and he thought it might make it worse to see his arm dangling there.

“I just tucked my arm back behind my vest so I couldn’t see it,” Bartles recalled.

Myers, whose right bicep was torn by a chunk of shrapnel, drove the Humvee to safety. He remembers Bartles being calm throughout the drive and joking that they’d gotten their ticket out of Iraq. Since then, the two have kept in touch by telephone.

Kansas University graduate student Chuck Bartles, 26, of Yankton, S.D., talks about an attack in which he lost an arm in Iraq. Bartles spoke Friday afternoon at a friend's home in Lawrence.

Bartles received the Purple Heart last month from President Bush during a ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He’ll receive a prosthetic arm later this month. But until then his partial arm is wrapped in a silicone sock designed to keep swelling down.

This week — after a few nights visiting downtown Lawrence bars with friends — he’ll return to finish treatment at Walter Reed, where he undergoes 6 or 8 hours of rehabilitation each day.

He’s learning to write and cook with his left hand, and he’s practicing using the prosthetic arm in a computer simulator. The arm uses electrodes that attach to his biceps and triceps and respond to signals when the muscles are flexed.

“I know how to use it. It’s just a matter of getting it hooked up,” Bartles said.

He is close to finishing a KU master’s thesis in Russian and East European Studies and has thought about attending law school.

He hopes to get a job guarding embassies worldwide with the State Department, but he’s worried his injury will disqualify him. He wants to stay in the military, but it’s up to a board to decide whether he is still fit to serve.

“This is not the way I wanted to end my (military) career — an amputee in a bomb blast,” he said. “I definitely want to stay in the military.”