As many people know Five months ago, Army Sgt. Brendan Marrocco’s arms belonged to someone else.

Marrocco, who was blown up in 2009, is the first soldier to receive a double arm transplant -- and only the 7th successful recipient in the United States.

He still doesn’t have any physical sensation in his hands, but he manages pretty well.

Doctors estimate it could be two years before he gets feeling all the way down to his finger tips, as nerve tissue regenerates about an inch a month.

In December, a team of 16 surgeons at Hopkins attached two cadaver arms to Marrocco in a 13-hour operation that started at 1 a.m. His remaining nerves, muscles, bones, blood vessels and tendons in his upper arms were intricately connected to the donor arms, and eventually, as the nerves come to life down the arm, the limbs will move like they were his own.

The rehabilitation process is long and grueling, but doctors said Marrocco has so far beaten every time line expectation.

Marrocco said trading in his prosthetics for the transplanted arms meant taking a step back in what he is able to do. Last year, he shot a gun with his prosthetic hands on his annual hunting trip.

Of the successful bilateral arm transplants done in the U.S., the hospital reported that Marrocco’s surgery was the most complicated and extensive ever.

The hospital is forging partnerships across the military to educate both patients and doctors about the chance for amputees to get non-prosthetic limbs. About a month and half ago, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki visited the hospital and expressed interest in covering the costs of rehabilitation for vets who undergo the procedure.

The surgery isn’t covered by the military insurance Tricare, so Hopkins and the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine footed the bill for Marrocco’s surgery. The doctors donated their time.

Marrocco will move to Walter Reed for the rest of his rehab. He said his new arms give him hope for the future. While he was waiting for a donor, he said he didn’t make any plans. Now he’s starting to plot out the next few years of his life.

On tap for this year? pulling the trigger with his new hands during his hunting trip in November.