america, it's always been about its people. people who work hard, who dare to dream, people who believe they can see the future. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> when times get tough, they never quit. when the going gets rough, they don't break. >> it belongs to the brave. >> if the country gets on the wrong track, they bring it back.

tonight you will meet some of them and you will be inspired. they are bringing america back. american dreamers. >> good evening. i'm cynthia mcfadden. >> so many people are hurting and so many more fear we're in danger of losing the american dream. we're going to tell you some extraordinary stories about people who are determined to do what they can to make sure that doesn't happen. >> the republican presidential contenders just finished their blockbuster debate in iowa, while in washington, the president is under fire for his economic policies. but the people you'll meet tonight aren't waiting for any of them to solve any of the challenges facing this nation. instead, they simply rolled up their sleeves and started doing something about our problems. >> we begin tonight with a man that you've been following for almost a year now. >> an interesting man doing something very important. dealing with foreclosures. we know millions of families are fighting to save their homes by modifying their homes.

but only 1% are successful. that is, unless they have someone like the guy you're about to meet fighting for them. he is saving the american dream one home at a time. >> i think they're hoping i'll just be like, okay, you can have my house. >> reporter: she bought her home eight years ago. right now, she's fighting the bank to keep it. a date has been set to auction it off. >> when i heard people were losing jobs in this economy, i knew i could sweek by. but unfortunately that wasn't the case. >> reporter: heather's a single mom with a 14-year-old son named donny. the she also takes care of her 80-year-old modern geraldine. >> it's not that i want to just stay home and have a free house. i want to work. >> you're just a person who got stuck on hard times. you're not running away from your debt.

>> no, i want to pay my bills. i want a payment i can afford. i want to pay my mortgage. did you have a good day? >> reporter: last year heather was laid off from a full-time job in sales for a beverage company. her new part-time job, even with help from her ex-husband, isn't enough to make ends meet. >> i was just squeaking by. i would pay on the 15th. then it's turned into the 16th. then the 17th. and then it would be like the 29th. >> reporter: so heather asked her bank g mrks arkmagmac to mo mortgage. >> i said, listen, we can resolve this. why don't you just drop my interest rate. this is a no-brainer. >> reporter: but the bank's response she says was a barrage of letters and collection calls. >> i'm a hard-working single mother taking care of my 80-year-old mother, and i'm just trying to get by. and survive. no, i want to thrive. i'm sick of just surviving.

i want to thrive. i want to have a good life. >> and they can help you do that. >> they can. by just doing what needs to be done, modify my mortgage. because i'll be able to afford it. i don't know why they don't want to help me. >> no, here. you're broke, aren't you? >> there's no george bailey's left in the world, you know what i mean? >> that's a loan. that's my business. >> reporter: but maybe there are. meet bruce. a man with a gift for getting mortgages modified. >> americans own their homes. this is my spot on earth. i've done everything right. this is being threatened. >> reporter: the 54-year-old doesn't look like george bailey, but he knows banks. he's actually a former management consultant who worked in finance. now, from his cramped offices above a pool hall, bruce fights all day against the biggest banks. >> do you anticipate the payment will stay the same?

>> how are you? >> good. >> reporter: and saves homes for people like heather. bruls had been fighting her's bk heather's bank modify her loan for seven months now. >> you get to the point where i can say, the mortgage has >> and bruce says he can appreciate heaven because he lived through hell. though he's a savvy businessman, he was once laid off and nearly lost his own home. >> i've been through this. i know what these people are going through. >> he figured if it could happen to him it could happen to anyone. so bruce decided to help others get their homes back. >> i can't sit here. and not help these people. it would be like walking away from somebody in an accident. >> his not for profit hsi trust home savers has taken over 200 cases since he started it in 2009. and br and bruce says he's gotten a good outcome in almost all of them. >> these are the folks that worked, saved, put their money into their homes. borrowed against their pension to get their homes. they are the american dream.

>> for the most part, bruce gets results by crunching numbers. knowing the available programs and getting the banks to see that modifying the loan is in their interest. how do you get from the point of them being two weeks to sell the house to them wanting to modify the loan? >> we're talking to folks who do the modifications most of the time. we can get the other resources that an individual homeowner couldn't. >> but bruce tracks his ability to work with banks to something else as well. his background as a counselor for juvenile delinquents. how do the mortgage servicers compare? >> the best lessons. they've never been given an incentive to an alternative. a lot of these kids would have one or two answers. it was helping them understand there's a third, a fourth. >> so you're doing that with the servicers? >> that's exactly what i'm doing. >> mike caldwell was the first client bruce took on. >> going up against bank of america, i knew in my heart i didn't have a chance.

if it wasn't for bruce, i can't honestly say i would still have this property. it's as easy as that. >> home savers doesn't work for free. bruce uses a sliding scale allowing people to pay what they can. >> hi, how are you? >> working together with people like heather, bruce can accomplish big things. remember that auction date? bruce made some calls, talked the talk and voila -- >> luckily, you know, bruce worked his magic and we got it pushed to february 2nd. >> and now that seven-month battle they've been fighting may be coming to a happy close. so far, heather's monthly payment has been reduced from about $2,600 to just under $1,700. after we called gmac, they agreed to postpone heather's auction date until march. in a statement, they say they are committed to working with borrowers like heather. this is all great news, a special gift from a special man,

especially around the holidays. do you think that it is a good omen that the man helping you looks like a baby santa? >> you know, it can only help. >> what's likegoing to be like? >> it's going to be tough. i'm lucky i have only one child. my mother's very understanding. >> also brings home what really matters anyway, right? >> exactly. i live in this country. i have a home. and i want to live the dream, you know, that's all i want to do, is i want to live the dream. >> just ahead, a family who worked the line for generations and watched the jobs go away. the tough choices the workers and their bosses made to save an american automobile.

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>> announcer: bringing america back, american dreamers continues now with chris cuomo. >> for nearly a century, the corridor to success for millions of american families was the assembly line, especially in the auto industry. many of those jobs were lost when the car industry all but collapsed recently and two of the big three needed government bailouts. but the automaker that has come back the fastest refused a bailout, ford. abc's david muir with the sacrifices the workers made to keep america's oldest carmaker

afloat. and the tough decisions at the top that kept ford building the american dream. when those first american automobiles rolled off the assembly line, those early workers were creating more than cars, they were creating america's middle class. at its peak, the auto industry employed more than 1 million americans. >> a mustang. >> they were the muscle, the mustang. >> mustang, mustang. mustang. >> general motors, chrysler and ford spent decades building loyalty in driveways across this country. fo ford asking that iconic question -- ♪ have you driven a ford lately ♪ >> but a far more serious question would emerge in the depths of the recession. whether the auto industry could even survive. ford alone was $30 billion in the red. generations of families who filled those plants were growing more and more nervous.

>> i tell you, we were close. i feel personally we were very close to pulling under. >> dan colacula, a ford retiree after more than three decades. 18 of you have worked for ford. >> yes. >> so this is beyond a family tradition, it's a way of life. >> yes. seriously. >> to son tom, still building those famed f-150s. were you worried about the company? >> i think everyone was a bit nervous. i was personally because i have a young family. >> that's when henry ford's own grandson turned the company over to an outsider named alan mulally. >> i usually get here about 5:20. >> 5:20 in the morning? >> yep. >> mulally believed the only way to save jobs was to take a rare step and for the workers to do the same. any accepted wage freezes and had their benefits trimmed. there has been sacrifice here. ford would not take the taxpayer bailout or file for bankruptcy. that new ceo would close 17 plants and cut more than 50,000 workers. ford would take out a staggering $23 billion in private loans. you had to lay off nearly half of the workforce.

that's a tough sell as ceo. >> we had to size the production to the real demand. of course the demand was low. so we had painful decisions to reduce our production capability and our employment. if the entire automobile industry would have gone into bankruptcy, it could have led the united states from a recession into a depression. >> amen. >> it was that same fear around the dinner table and at homes throughout dearborn that motor town 98,000. dan colacula's father started making the steel for fords in the 1930s. four generations later, still going. dan's wife, he met at ford. she was a secretary. >> you let me drive your -- >> mustang. i did? man, i must have been -- i must have been really in love. >> joke in the family, bring home someone not driving a ford, they'll have to park it out back. to bring ford back, the company needed to become more competitive overseas.

mullally knew that. and he knew ford has taken on too many brands. once a week, management would meet with color coded charts. he famously remembers the first time a manager actually held up a red chart, a daring move, signaling to the new ceo production should be halted on one of ford's cars. >> out comes the chart. it's bright red. so i started to clap. >> you applauded the bravery in someone being willing to say we should halt this at least for the moment to figure out a better plan. >> there are no secrets. there are no hidden agendas. >> at the time, mullally knew that nothing could be hidden if you truly want to bring back an american brand. but, still, the automaker was under fire in washington. the ceos of the big three automakers grilled on capital hill after flying private jets to washington to request taxpayer bailout money. it was ford's ceo who when asked if he would do his job for a dollar said he believed he was earning his pay. >> are you willing to go down to the dollar? >> i think i'm okay where i am. >> convinced he was earning that

$17 million in pay because inside ford the turnaround had begun. and the workers who did survive, beginning to thank that ceo who took those drastic steps. dan's son tom still at work. as a pipe fitter on the line, putting the air conditioning in the f-150.e plant --e upstairs you have your little private oasis here. >> you can call it that. kind of my home at times for sure. >> that pipe fitter is a painter too. so you got to be the only factory worker with your own artist studio upstairs. >> i would imagine so, yeah. >> the monet of the motor company. no landscapes here. a portrait of power engines instead. >> so i see you've begun to sketch out i'm guessing a f-150 here. >> correct. this is definitely an f-150, nothing but. >> painting workers on the walls, inside a factory, making a comeback. if the ceo were here today, what would you tell him? >> thank you.

>> you would? >> i sure would, yeah. >> shake his hand. >> most definitely. >> turns out, many would here. >> good to see you. thanks a lot. >> great to see you here again. >> now we're going to hire 12,000 new employees over the next three years. >> and about that $23 billion loan ford took out? over that last seven quarters, we have replaced over $21 billion. >> so you're almost there. >> in fact, the entire u.s. auto industry is now enjoying its best annual sales in years. >> we are here supporting the gradual improvement in the economy -- >> and on our walk through that f-150 factory in dearborn, one more man for mullally to greet. the retiree dan. who had no idea when we invited him back to the factory that the ceo would be coming too. >> i know who you are. you're our hero. >> oh, thanks a lot. >> i don't want to put dan on the spot but i have a photograph of him. >> oh, my goodness. >> what a start, eh? >> the image of dan, his wife, their first child and that other baby, the first ford mustang.

>> '65? >> '64 1/2. april '64. >> you'll remember, it was dan who told us if he ever met the ceo, he'd say thank you. but it was the ceo about to turn the tables on the retiree. >> i'm standing on your shoulders. you got ford to this place. we're going to take it flying now. >> i'm standing behind you. >> i know. thanks a lot. >> are we sitting in a factory of survivors? >> these are more than survivors. we are fighting for the soul of manufacturing in the united states. this is the heart of america. >> announcer: still ahead -- >> shot from wade -- >> announcer: the basketball superstar literally fighting for america's children tells the young fathers of his community they have to man up. >> as men, we have to get back in line to raise our families, to make sure this country we live in can continue to thrive. [ horn honks ] [ gps ] hello dave.

oh, not again. [ gps ] dave, do you know where your wife went last week? she went to jared to look at a beautiful diamond necklace. i'm not going to the cleaners anymore, am i? [ gps ] no dave, you're not. [ tires screech ] right turn. [ engine revs ] [ male announcer ] jared the galleria of jewelry has five times the selection of ordinary jewelry stores, so you'll find the perfect gift every time. how did you know? who knows you like i do? [ horn honks ] [ male announcer ] that's why he went to jared, the galleria of jewelry. let's show 'em what a breakfast with wholegrain fiber can do. one coffee with room, one large mocha latte. medium macchiato, light hot chocolate hold the whip, and two espressos, make one a double. she's full and focused! [ barista ] i have two cappuccinos, one coffee with room, one large mocha latte, a medium macchiato, a light hot chocolate, hold the whip and two espressos, one with a double shot. hehe, that's not the coffee talking. [ female announcer ] start your day with kellogg's frosted mini-wheats cereal. the 8 layers of whole grain fiber help keep you full so you can avoid the distraction of mid-morning hunger. no thanks, i'm good.

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the people who built this country often came here for one reason -- to make life better for their children. today, many american families are in crisis.

in a down economy, the smallest americans are often those who suffer most. but it is the next generation we see our hard work fulfilled, our deepest wishes realized. so abc's juju chang caught up with one man who says he is passionate about raising the american dream. >> draws on marion. trying to draw contact. oh, difficult shot from wade. >> dwyane wade leads a double life. by day, he earns $14 million a year playing this game. off the court, he's hip. he's hot. he's uber chic. but at night, he plays a different game. as a single father raising his two young sons and a nephew. what are the d-wade house rules? >> you come in the house. you get out of your school clothes.

put your shoes away. wash your face. i want them to follow it. >> the moms at school didn't know what to make of him. do you do drop-offs? >> i was, like, one of the only dads doing drop-off. they called me mr. mom for a while. >> it's an apt nickname because wade is a man with a mission. >> how you doing? >> to bring back a pillar of the american dream, the bedrock american value of family. he's reaching out to fathers and sons to combat the epidemic of broken homes. a jaw dropping 72% of african-american kids are being raised by a single parent. mostly women. >> as men, we have to get back in line to raise our families. to make sure this country we live in can continue to stride by raising great kids. >> it's a message dwyane spreads everywhere he goes. >> sports run out. at some point in your life, it's not going to be there. >> today, he's meeting with several families to discuss parenting. dwyane talks -- >> got to show them, you know, what a man does and what a man should do and how a man should lead his family. >> but he also listens.

>> because i didn't have a father. he taught me how to be a father. we work hard. he made the honor roll two times. and he's right behind him. >> 32-year-old calvin durham, a single parent himself, hopes his kids will be inspired by dwyane's story. >> we always say what? what do we say, baby? >> good decisions. >> make good decisions. you maybe can be better than dwyane wade. >> better than dwyane wade. >> oh, for sure. >> something i will never be. you know, there are a lot of critics out there who would be like, oh, sure, it's easy for you, you're a millionaire nba player. easy for you to be a dad. >> it's not about how much money i have or don't have. it's about the time i'm willing to sit down across the table from my kids. and if they don't get something right, helping them get it right. >> you might think this is another pro athlete's pet project but even president obama appointed wade as a kind of ambassador at large for fatherhood.

and to understand how much the idea of family means to him -- >> this is the building. >> you need to know where he came from. >> he'd sit down on that stoop sometime all night sitting out there waiting to see if his mommy's going to come past. >> his mom, jolinda, abandoned dwyane in a sense in a downward spiral, as he was growing up on chicago's harsh south side. >> got deeper, deeper into the dark drugs, alcohol, abandoned building, the homeless lifestyle, you name it, jolinda was there in it. >> one day his 12-year-old sister took 8-year-old dwyane on a bus trip to go live with his father, who had left the family years earlier. >> i thought we was going to the movie. it was kind of like she just dropped me off. and she never came back to get me. >> i didn't know what was going to happen. i wasn't sure if my dad was going to drop him back off. i said, let me just see, you know, and dad kept him. >> he also brought basketball into your life in a way. >> he did. he put the ball in my hands in a sense. he made me play basketball because he loved it.

>> so that's a big gift. >> it became a big gift. >> that's a whopper of a gift. >> mom got sober, decided to do the right thing and turned herself in to serve out a jail sentence. >> it was tough. it was one of the worst days of my life. and it hurt. i cried. >> that's when he told me, he said, you say i'm your hero, he say, you're mine, and that's all i needed. oh, my god, now i can do this, god, i can do this. because i was his hero. isn't that something? >> when his mom finally got out of jail, she walked right into the open arms of her family. >> i couldn't do nothing but just, you know, hold her and cry with her, cry happy tears for once. >> no one would have blamed you for being angry. you did nothing but embrace her. >> i knew because of the mistakes that she made, it was going to lead to great things for me, because i wasn't going to make those mistakes. >> what i have experience -- >> forgiveness is now part of

pastor jolinda wade's ministry. it was dwyane, the kid who wasn't sure if his mom was going to make it, who bought her the church. >> are you telling me that dwyane wade is a mama's boy? >> he's a mama's boy. >> after almost losing his mother, dwyane vowed never to be a deadbeat dad. despite a bruising three-year custody battle with his high school sweetheart. not many fathers fight for custody. what made you do that? >> i didn't want to get pushed out of my boy's life. i'm always going to be your dad. i'm going to fight to make sure i'm in your life. >> 4-year-old zion is marking the days till he goes to see mom. he wants his boys to know they have two loving parents. >> no matter what relationship me and my ex-wife have, my kids love her. and their days are better when they talk to her. >> for the basketball phenom who had to sit out his freshman year to get his test scores up, homework comes before basketball. >> this is what's important to me, for them to be a great

student, respectful young man. things like that. so when he slip a little bit, i had to take him off the basketball team. >> oh, ouch, dad, oh. >> yeah. >> that's tough. that's tough love. >> it was tough but i had to do it. >> dwyane took parenting classes. >> computers, 99. foreign language, 89. >> now that dwyane brought his family back together, he's helping others to do the same. >> whatever my parents is going through, they have to go through that. so i never really blamed anyone. >> it's the story of dwyane wade's life. and by sharing it, he's teaching it. >> i'm proud of you. i want to tell you myself, man to man. >> announcer: just ahead -- >> i'm mad as hell and i'm not taking it anymore! >> announcer: she was the

crewadding single mother who julia roberts played in a famous movie. now erin brockovich says more than ever we need to get back to the most basic promises of the american dream. >> mutual respect, honor, integrity. we have moved away from that. ♪ [ doorbell rings ] ♪ [ female announcer ] just for these hectic holidays, mcdonald's introduces a cup of holiday cheer. ♪ it's mccafe's new peppermint mocha and peppermint hot chocolate. holiday cheer with chocolate on top. ♪ the simple joy of unwinding. ♪

and...an apology card. this is ridiculous. yeah, and it's got apps. nice. it's got vudu, twitter, facebook. no honey, not facebook. ♪ honey, you think my sweater's horrendous?

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>> announcer: bringing america back, american dreamers, continues now with cynthia mcfadden. >> welcome back. the generations of americans who built this country from the

pilgrims to the pioneers tamed the wilderness but loved and respected it. we're rightly proud of the beauty and bounty of our land and the fact we can raise our families in healthy and safe environments and look forward to seeing our grandkids do the same. but the woman you're about to meet believes we can't take all this for granted. she's fighting to clean up the american dream. >> hinkley, california, is a speck of a town in the mojave desert, halfway between l.a. and nowhere. it's dusty and hot. but it's home to generations of folks for whom hinkley represents something, something special about the american spirit. something captured in the film that won julia roberts an oscar playing erin brockovic >> my name is >> my name is erin and i brought some information today. >> it's about a town that pulled together to defend the community they cherished led by

brockovich. bold and brassy. >> what makes you think you can just walk in there and find what we need? >> they're called boobs, ed. >> this has just got to stop. >> we met the real erin brockovich 15 years ago reporting on the discontent in hinkley and another small town. in those days, brockovich was a file clerk who found herself piecing together the story of people like these, who were sick and scared. >> we've lost three or four uncles, aunts. >> whole families are dying of cancer. >> and there were so many more. brockovich ended up helping them make a case against their neighbor, the giant utility pacific gas and electric who they claimed had poisoned their water supply with a chemical california now recognizes as a carcinogen, chromium 6, and covered it up for decades. what the people who lived around here didn't know --

a few weeks after our story, pg&e settled with the residents for $330 million. the largest such direct action lawsuit in history. though the company never acknowledged making anyone sick. >> i'm mad as hell and i'm not taking it anymore! >> brockovich has since become a passionate advocate. the idea that one of the most basic promises of the american dream is we can all raise our kids in a healthy and safe place. >> the thing that can make the difference will be you. >> she's become an alarmist rabble-rouser to some. a folk hero to others. now, she says, people e-mail her by the tens of thousands. >> that is fascinating -- >> to tell her about what they suspect are contamination issues all across america. >> each one of these green dots is a person reporting cancer in their neighborhood. >> she's plotted 1,700 such sites on a map.

she says she's now refining it with google. >> i believe that we have a huge problem with the water in america. >> she says people come to her because they don't know where else to go. >> nobody really knows what we're going through. you do. >> she meets with people like this all over the country. from places like carson, california, to duncan, oklahoma. frequently tangling with corporate giants. >> i'm erin, we just talked to your mom -- >> but ironically, the place that occupies much of brockovich's time these days is the one that made her famous. hinkley. what are we doing back here? i thought this was supposed to be fixed. >> it was supposed to be fixed. >> we were shocked to discover all these years later it never got fixed. in fact, the area of contamination has grown according to the local water board. >> i mean, it's gone east. it's gone north. it's gone south. >> brockovich is working with the law firm of girardi and keese in hinkley on a wide range of other pollution cases. their environmental investigator

is bob. he and brockovich are doing their own water testing, which they say shows a pollution zone far beyond the pg&e's map. he says pg&e's method of cleanup has fallen short. is it because they don't have the power to fix it or the will to fix it? >> they don't have the will to fix it. they need to go to the source, extract it and remove it from the environment. i guess we all assumed $333 million later, that was that. >> i really thought there was a victory and we had made a difference and to be here today and see that happening again, i can't sit here and tell you there's been a victory. there hasn't. it hurts deeply. >> consider the case of roberta walker. >> hi. >> in the movie version, she was y had been devastated by disease. >> it's just got to be different

than what's in our water because ours is okay. the guys from pg&e told me. they sat right in the kitchen and told me it was fine. >> i know. >> as part of the settlement, pg&e bought her house and its contaminated well. with the money, she built a new house. four miles down the road. outside of the original contamination zone. >> i built a house. got my dream house. >> but late last year, a cruel twist. according to the water board, the so-called plume of contaminated groundwater was spreading. >> the plume had moved, it was heading my direction, and i couldn't believe it. >> this is the sort of the outline of the plume as it's been described. >> this is des bell, the pg&e executive in charge of the cleanup in hinkley. we sat down with him last week. so do you believe pg&e's actions have caused health problems for

people in hinkley? >> no one in hinkley is drinking water that doesn't meet the state water quality standard, but we certainly have an environmental groundwater cleanup issue to deal with. >> so yes or no, people are sick because of the water in hinkley? >> i am not a medical professional. as i said earlier, i can't draw a direct link between people being sick and water they were drinking. our commitment is to stay there and do the right thing and get it done, get it done right. >> but such words are of little comfort to roberta walker who says she's heard it all before. from pg&e. you've had the water tested up here. >> right now it's tested at 1.9. >> pg&e would say that's a safe level. >> yes. >> but you don't buy it? >> no. if someone was to give you a pinch of arsenic and say, here, this isn't going to kill you, and it's not going to kill you right now, but if you take this pinch every single day, yeah, it's going to have an effect on your health. >> okay, so here's our bottled water. >> walker gets bottled water

from pg&e, as do nearly 250 households within a mile of the known pollution zone. so does a local school, even though pg&e says they're testing at a safe level. why doesn't pg & e clean it up? why are we still talking about this? >> well, i understand that people are questioning why is it taking so long. frankly, i'd like to see things moving more quickly myself. we've had to go through an exhaustive process to get to a point where we've been able recently to submit a proposal with the solution to conduct the cleanup and we want to move expeditiously once it's approved to implement it. >> i'm confused because one of your employees said at the last water board meeting it was going to take another 40 to 50 years to clean up. >> uh-huh. >> you do appreciate that when you say we're going to move expeditiously, there's a lot of raised eyebrows in hinkley. >> well, again, i understand the concern and why is it taking so long. >> amber was just a kid when the movie came out. but now she has a family.

and problems of her own. >> pg&e came out to test the water. we were kind of, like, what's going on, what's wrong, and they said, oh, no, your water's fine, you have nothing to worry about, it won't move this far. >> do you feel betrayed by pg&e? >> they lied and they tried to cover it up, instead of just telling us we want to buy your property before our family got sick. >> pg&e says their purchase program has recently expanded to accommodate people like amber who are scared. but amber says she still worries. her daughter has nose bleeds just like she did growing up in hinkley. >> good boy. >> and her son gets rashes and has diabetes. amber tells us she had a miscarriage and has cysts on her ovaries, problems she attributes to the water. >> it's too late for us. they're working to clean up the water, but it's too late for my

family and my son. >> there's a very fundamental basic value system that i think america was built upon. and that's mutual respect. honor. integrity. and concern for our environment. and the right to clean water. and we have moved away from it. >> there are going to be a lot of people who listen to you and say we need jobs. don't start battering down business. if you do this, you're going to hurt this country even more. >> of course we need jobs. there's an opportunity here to create jobs in science, in technology, in developing new ways to dispose of our waste. you can put people to work. that's bringing back america. >> dale beatty was inside this humvee when an ied exploded. he lost his legs but not his heart. what he's doing to bring america back.

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the word "hero" may best describe those who put their lives on the line for what matters most. and you may find the most examples of heroism in america's armed forces. many never return from battles abroad. and many who do are never the same. injuries, seen and unseen. but as only heroes can, they don't complain. instead, they've taken things into their own hands. here's abc's bob woodruff on the men protecting the american dream. >> it was november 2004 when dale beatty and his best friend john galina were in iraq return from a mission. >> we had been up late that night preparing the vehicle. that was a last-minute, you know, hey, here, tomorrow you're

going to go out on this mission. >> so i was taking a video of us driving, filming everybody in the truck. said hey to everyone. i took a little video. put it back in my pocket. and right after that we got hurt. >> the explosion rocked their humvee 200 feet in the air. john suffered a brain injury and back wounds. dale lost both his legs and spent more than a year at walter reed hospital recovering. when they finally got back to north carolina, dale was struggling to adjust to life at home. >> after leaving the hospital where there's elevators and ramps, you come home to the real world, and you see that you got to make some significant changes in your lifestyle. >> his house wasn't equipped for a double amputee. seeing his friend struggle, john felt compelled to help. he teamed up with some local builders to construct a new house for dale to give him the independence he so rightly deserved. >> and i come home and got so much help from this community,

such a good feeling for me and for me and my family, we really had the best case scenario for somebody who had been injured as bad as i was. >> when the work was done, dale and john were inspired. and deep sided to dedicate their lives to building and retrofitting homes for disabled veterans. >> after we came home from iraq, looking around in our communities, we saw that there was -- there's still greater needs that were not being met. >> they started a foundation and called it purple heart homes. >> you know, our goal is just simply to pay it forward just one bit. >> dale and john hope to bring america back to thos days after world war ii when veterans were cheered and embraced by their communities. >> you need to understand, it's about community. it's about lifting up those that have served and sacrificed and in that, you know, we found a way that we can say we believe.

>> they soon discovered that there are more than 17,000 veterans living in their county alone. and every thursday morning, a group gathers here in richard's coffee shop. that's how they met dave morel. >> hey, dave. >> who served three tours with the special forces in vietnam. >> hey, nice to meet you. >> the war cost him a leg. >> this just comes off. >> they learned that he was forced to crawl from his bedroom to his bathroom because his wheelchair and walker wouldn't fit through the doors. he said the v.a. wouldn't pay to fix it because he is missing only one limb. >> you have to be double. single am pew tee am pew tie, the best i can get is wheelchair, one ramp. to have the house physically adapted, i don't qualify. >> were you outraged by this, that people didn't know about these guys couldn't get in their shower? >> no. i think it was such a shock to john and myself. there was no time for outrage.

there's really no time for outrage. there's only time to do something about it. >> so they did. they knocked down a wall and built an addition on to his home. with a brand-new bedroom and an accessible bathroom so dave can roll right in. >> going from a volkswagen to a cadillac is a nice upgrade. that's what this is. it's an upgrade. and it is nice. >> there are more than 3 million american veterans with disabilities connected to their service. when dale and john met vietnam vet kevin smith, he could barely get in and out of his house. he says he's often felt unappreciated because vietnam was such an unpopular war. >> and the community has woke up and said, hey, maybe we were wrong. and -- >> just sitting there talking to him that first day, just brought tears to his eyes.

he had never been told welcome home. >> with the help of a handful of neighbors, purple heart homes build him a wooden ramp to help ease his burden. >> just feels good to know that people care about their country. again. >> everyone standing here, you're all now part of the purple heart homes team so take care of buddy. >> dale and john's foundation is hitting its stride. last week in georgia, they recruited dozens volunteers from wells fargo to help put the finishing touches on the home of sergeant buddy mays. he was hit by a roadside bomb in iraq in 2005, breaking his back and leaving him paralyzed. he returned to a home not built for a man now restricted to a wheelchair. >> i don't want to sound complaining by saying it's hard in a chair, but it ain't easy. >> it was also hard on his two girls. >> my girls are my life. and they've seen the trials, the struggles.

just the daily mundane hard stuff that most kids wouldn't have to see. >> the team worked to widen the doors. repaint every wall. and build an outdoor elevator so buddy could get to the backyard to play with his daughters. >> it's really up to us. it's up to the community to take ownership for the people who go and fight and die and bleed for us. >> last week, the project was finished. dale and john were there to help move the family in. just in time for the holidays. >> i think it's a good home. this is something that will last forever. simply amazing. all my independence is back to me finally. finally. >> just like the spirit of volunteerism that we have here

today, the community turned out. we commend each and every one of you. and i hope that you go and you share with others. >> to close the day, buddy wheeled out to the front yard, to the flag pole, to raise the defend. it may not have been part of the plan. but buddy insisted he should stand. >> there's no one greater in our community that deserves to live comfortably and with dignity in their home than those that have served and sacrificed for our freedom. 's's's's's new baked pasta romanas. these warm hearty creations are only here for a limited time. ruffled lasagnette pasta, layered with creamy fontina and asiago cheeses with roasted garlic and oven baked just for you.

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that's our program for tonight.

we've already got a spirited conversation going on online. join us at facebook or on twitter @nightline. >> the stakes are higher than ever. i'm chris cuomo. >> i'm cynthia mcfadden. thank you for watching. there will be much more about the republican debate tomorrow on gma and this week. for all of us at abc news, good night. your turkey was delicious like always sweetheart. ah...thanks mom. bye. drive safely. yes, we will we will love you. ♪ it's beginning to look a lot like christmas ♪ ♪ toys in every store. egg nog? ♪ the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be on your own front door ♪