Last fall, researchers at Johns Hopkins University learned something U.S. Army Capt. Jonathan Pruden already knew.

Among the first soldiers to invade Iraq, Pruden lost his right leg and had his left leg badly injured by small-arms fire and an improvised explosive device blast July 1, 2003.

Sunday afternoon, he helped other injured veterans learn how to scuba dive. Studying injured veterans obtaining their scuba-diving certification during a four-day study, Johns Hopkins researchers found the activity improved muscle movement and sensation in injured limbs and reduced the effects of post traumatic stress disorder.

"It's almost like you're flying," Pruden said of propellers that are part of scuba divers' equipment. "This is the most freedom I've had since being wounded."

Pruden and retired U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Mike Thornton were among veterans attending the weekend's annual Wounded Warrior Project Summit, held at the Sawgrass Marriott Resort in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Bo and Debbie Twillman, master divers who founded Divers4Heroes in 2006, organized the event with the Wounded Warriors Project.

"What I see is that it offers a better quality of life for the veterans," Debbie Twillman said. "Out of the water, you feel gravity. In the water, they don't feel the pressure on their spine or the same pain in a leg."

Tony Behel, a staff sergeant in the Alabama Army National Guard, made it through improvised explosive device explosions in 2004 and 2005 before concrete flew like a missile through the air, crashing into his skull Feb. 23, 2010, in Basra, Iraq.

He was left with a traumatic brain injury.

Sunday was the first time Behel or his wife, Jennifer, tried scuba diving.

"I love the water," Behel said, just unharnessed from his scuba gear. "I always loved the water. I just never thought I'd get back in."

Behel and his wife didn't see much of one another during the swim. After Bo Twillman gave instructions on details such as extracting water from diving masks - "blow like you're trying to clear your sinuses" - Behel played like a fish for about 20 minutes in the Marriott pool.

Jennifer Behel's start was slower than her husband's.

"I didn't have enough weights," she said of the weights Divers4Heroes gave divers to help them sink.

After getting an extra weight and some encouragement from Debbie Twillman, Jennifer Behel was breathing and swimming beneath the water's surface.

"My husband and I will definitely do this again," she said. "It's exciting to do something you've never done and comforting to have these instructors here."

Swimming among his fellow veterans, cracking jokes and giving advice was Thornton, who received the Medal of Honor for saving a fellow SEAL's life in 1973 during his last tour of duty in Vietnam.

Bo Twillman, also a veteran, said scuba diving is a chance for wounded veterans, whatever their injuries, to escape from everyday stress.

"The mission is to get them out of their house, out of their own heads," he said. "When guys came home from Vietnam, they were often medicated and told to stay home. This generation of soldiers are coming back and saying, 'I don't want to be medicated. I want to live.'"

Divers4Heroes has worked with nearly 400 injured veterans, including the blind, quadriplegic and paraplegic, Debbie Twillman said.

The company conducts monthly and quarterly dives and provides scuba certification tests in Lakeland.

"In the water, I'm so focused on the guys, and when someone comes up and says, 'Bo, thanks so much,' those are good moments."

Pruden, now the Wounded Warrior Project's Southeast alumni manager, said he is driven to help new scuba divers who were hurt in war experience the feeling he gets from the water.

"It's incredibly freeing," Pruden said before hitting the pool Sunday. "I can't run anymore, but I can fly through the water."