Veteran returns to Arizona, aids PTSD research

One Arizona veteran has returned home to help study the science behind post-traumatic stress disorder.

“When 9/11 hit I was in college,” said retired Army Sgt. Arriz Lucas. “You know I felt compelled to go in and not too long after I got to see what it’s like on the front lines.”

Then in 2009, Lucas was medically retired at the age of 26 and sent home.

“I had no one to turn to,” he recalled. “I couldn’t sleep, I would get these migraines, I didn’t know what was going on with me personally.”

But he fought through and got a degree in molecular bioscience and biotechnology.

Soon after graduating, he was offered a job as a lab assistant researching traumatic brain injuries at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix.

Now he helps with the study of traumatic brain injury.

“I would hate for someone to go through what I did because no one was available,” he said. “I want to be part of the solution and say, ‘After they serve their country that someone’s going to serve them properly if they need it.'”