John Edmonston was planning on a long career in the Navy.

And then life got in the way.

The Bremerton man who served aboard the USS Stennis as an officer in the nuclear division, decided on a Navy career while in college. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

“I was at a job fair at my college and I learned about the need for engineers in the Navy,” he said. “I was hooked.”

Because he had a high GPA, he was accepted in the Navy’s nuclear program while still in college. He graduated from college in 2004 and was assigned to the Stennis. He was sent on multiple deployments and made Bremerton his home. It was in 2009, when the Stennis was back in port after a deployment that Edmonston’s Navy career plans changed.

“I hadn’t been on my bike (motorcycle) in a long time,” he said. “So me and a buddy rode to Seattle and drove all over. It was when we were unloading from the ferry back in Bremerton that it happened.”

From what he was told and what he remembers, his bike slid on gravel in the roadway. It hit the ground and he went flying. His helmet flew off his head and his head hit the street.

“I guess my helmet wasn’t secure,” he said.

Edmonston sustained a severe head injury that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. He broke his back, his arm and several bones in his face. His family in California was called to his side because doctors didn’t expect him to live.

He spent the next 11 days unable to remember or communicate. He was in the hospital for weeks and it took months of physical and occupational therapy after that for him to function.

“I was in a lot of pain,” he said. “It’s taken years to recover and in some small ways, I’m still recovering.”

The worst part was loss of mental functions. His short term memory is still an issue and in 2011, he medically retired from the Navy.

“I didn’t want to give that up,” he said. “But the Navy hired me for my brains and I kind of scrambled them.”

The following months were hard for him. He felt lost without the camaraderie of his fellow sailors. It was then that Navy friends and others suggested he take part in a Wounded Warriors’ Safe Harbor camp, a place where he could interact with other disabled military members in athletic competitions. The Wounded Warrior Games were founded in 2010 to encourage the wounded and ill service members and veterans to stay physically active.

“They kept asking me to go,” he said. “At first I told them it wasn’t for me. But they were all so excited about it that I finally said I’d go to camp. It was amazing.”

That was four years ago. To date, Edmonston has received more medals than he can count. He competes in running, swimming and volleyball annually. There are two training camps each year, where he gets together with teammates for practices. Since then, he has also been named the Ultimate Warrior twice, by competing in every category and obtaining the highest scores.

“It’s a real honor,” he said. “But it’s very tiring. It’s something I don’t plan on doing every year.”

This year, he was part of the U.S. Wounded Warrior team to compete in the Invictus Games in London in September, where he turned 35. Edmonston added to his collection of medals, taking home a silver medal in the men’s 50-meter breaststroke. Edmonston and retired Navy Corpsman 3rd Class Redmond Ramos won bronze in the men’s 50-meter freestyle relay.

As those games came to a close, he returned to the U.S. to compete in the 2014 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs at the end of September.

“It’s been an exhausting month,” he said by phone prior to his last day of competition in Colorado. “This month may age me a few years.”

Edmonston said because he was a leader in the Navy, at the rank of lieutenant, some others who compete in the games look to him to lead. That, he thinks, is why he’s done well and has the respect of his teammates.

“Many of them weren’t officers,” he said. “So they expect me to be the leader.”

He doesn’t see himself as a great athlete and sometimes has a hard time competing.

“I see myself as someone who has more in life than many of the guys I compete with,” he said. “I still have all my limbs. My teammates — two are missing a leg from an IED blast, and one of them is missing both legs from an IED.

“My injuries aren’t obvious, and I can use my legs and arms. But when I was injured, I lost my ability to be a part of the Navy and serve my country, and this is a way to stay a part of that.”

Following his retirement from the Navy, Edmonston went to work as a civilian employee with the Department of Defense working on the mechanics of launching and recovery combat systems on submarines and carriers. He hopes to someday go back to California and be closer to family. But for now, Bremerton is  home.

As for the Warrior Games, he’s planning on continuing to compete. “I’ll do this as long as they invite me back,” he said.