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Navy SEAL-turned-scientist works to solve the puzzle of battlefield brain injuries

Morgan Luttrell was a Navy SEAL like his more famous twin brother, Marcus, who went on to write a bestseller, Lone Survivor, a first-person account of a harrowing battle in Afghanistan, which was later made into a Hollywood film.

Morgan Luttrell, 40, fought his share of battles too during nine combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan in 10 years.  He is also drawing on his combat experience, but in a less glamorous fashion than his brother. He’s studying to become a cognitive scientist and is on a doctoral track at the University of Texas at Dallas. His goal is to treat veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, the most prevalent combat injuries from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He can relate to soldiers dealing with physical and mental wounds.

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Morgan Luttrell was a Navy SEAL like his more famous twin brother, Marcus, who went on to write a bestseller, Lone Survivor, a first-person account of a harrowing battle in Afghanistan, which was later made into a Hollywood film.

Morgan Luttrell, 40, fought his share of battles too during nine combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan in 10 years.  He is also drawing on his combat experience, but in a less glamorous fashion than his brother. He’s studying to become a cognitive scientist and is on a doctoral track at the University of Texas at Dallas. His goal is to treat veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, the most prevalent combat injuries from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He can relate to soldiers dealing with physical and mental wounds.

He and his brother, who both stand 6-foot-5 and weigh about 230 pounds,  grew up riding horses and playing football. So even before his military career he’d suffered many blows to the head and been knocked out a few times. But nothing compared to what happened to him in October 2009.

Luttrell was aboard an Army helicopter during a training exercise off the coast of Virginia Beach. The SEALs were training to fast-rope down onto the ship when their Black Hawk crashed into a combat support ship, killing one and injuring eight, including Luttrell.

Read More: Dallas News

Featured Image – Morgan Luttrell has paired up with the Boot Campaign, a Texas-based national charity that supports veterans through the sale of its signature combat boots.ReBOOT seeks to raise funds to pay for treatment of veterans enrolled at UTD’s Center for BrainHealth and with other partners helping veterans in Virginia and California, Payne said. Dallas NewsReBOOT

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The SOFREP News Team is a collective of professional military journalists. Brandon Tyler Webb is the SOFREP News Team's Editor-in-Chief. Guy D. McCardle is the SOFREP News Team's Managing Editor. Brandon and Guy both manage the SOFREP News Team.

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