How an Xbox controller helped this disabled Iraq War veteran play again

[MUSIC] When I first saw a controller, it was eye-opening. I saw what it could do, not just for me, but for other people in the community of spinal cord injuries. My name is Michael Luckett, I am a. And US Army retired captain, and I am the social media manager for Warfighter Engaged. [MUSIC] I know a lot of the vets that used to game and didn't In game anymore, and they just completely, just quick. And with this controller coming up, Microsoft and XBox, it's something I could use to prove them wrong. I was in Iraq in 2010 to 2011 and we came up, and I was injured [INAUDIBLE] in a motorcycle accident. And it resulted in a C6 spinal cord injury. I lost the function in my hands. I was already in a depressed state. I can't even function on using keys or using track pad or any of that. But I was Determined to play video games again. And I went online on YouTube and actually just typed in disabled gamer, quadriplegic gamer, and I started seeing these gamers finding ways to play video games, whether it be with their face, or just having it on their lap. It was like, if they can do it, why can't I do it. And now I've started the journey. [MUSIC] It takes a little bit of setting up. At most it probably took me two hours to get used to it. With us as being adaptive gamers, we adapt in different ways. I co pilot with the controller and a regular Xbox controller. And it opened a lot of doors. Once I found out that I could game competitively again, I was able to just apply that to everything else. Like this past Sunday, I actually did a Spartan race. That was physically challenging, but I was already mentally tough, and I was able to do it, just grind right through it. [MUSIC]