defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. easily absorbed calcium plus d. beauty is bone deep. welcome to "taking the hill," i'm patrick murphy. u.s. forces back in iraq confronting air strikes against isis and advising troops on the ground three years after withdrawal. and now, the target list has expanded to syria. so far, the u.s. has launched more than 200 strikes in iraq and dozens more in syria. and now, a new nbc poll just out finds that 72% of americans believe we will have boots on the ground against isis. the midterm elections are now just 37 days away. there's a big field of veterans running this year. still not as many as we like. the new class in congress will be confronted with the new war

in the middle east, the drawdown in afghanistan and lingering v.a. crisis. i want to speak to two fellow veterans about the races to watch. the battle back home, we'll meet jessie a veteran whose greatest challenge came when he returned home. but first, this past week i sat down with democratic u.s. senator tim kaine, member of the armed services and foreign relations committees. we began by discussing president obama's justification for going to war against isis without congressional approval. >> let's talk about isis. >> yep. >> which has been referred to as a network of death. we are now at war with isis. >> clearly. >> but there's no congressional authority? it's not covered by the 2001 or 2002 umf? >> i don't believe it is. i know the white house and some in congress would argue otherwise, but i don't think either of the article two powers of the president, which allow for defense against imminent

threat or the '01, '02, military action against isil that's offensive in nature. and as soon as the president decided we need to go on offense against isil, which he announced a few weeks ago, at that point, congressional approval of this mission became mandatory in my view. and i've been making that argument to the white house and, frankly, my harder place sometimes than making it with my own colleagues convincing congress we need to do the hard thing and have this debate and have this vote. i do now think that congress is committed to doing that. i'd rather do that sooner than later. but the president really should not be engaging in what his own administration describes as a war without congressional authorization. >> yeah, and listen i know it's been around for decades. since the vietnam war. this is clearly an offensive operation against isis which makes it without congressional authority an illegal war, in a sense. >> it does, unless you can argue either the '01 or '02 -- it's

clearly something beyond the constitution. we love the virginian who drafted it. madison drafted the constitutional language in such a way that a president could always immediately defend the united states as commander in chief. but, once you go on offense, you know, then you have to have congress. and the first real testament, thomas jefferson was president. american ships were getting attacked by the terrorist group of the day in the same region, and jefferson as commander in chief, could repel the attack. but finally said instead of repelling attacks, why don't i go on offense and wipe them out as a threat and won't have to repel attacks anymore. but he says i can't do this without the sanction of congress. and that's the way it ought to be done. and the president has said he would welcome congress. and actually asked for authorization. but we really need congress to completely weigh in on an authorization. >> but, is part of it your colleagues in congress is it

because it's election season elections right around the corner in november. i know it's hard. they don't like to tackle difficult issues. but don't they see that's the responsibility. to declare war, it's blatantly right there in the constitution. >> well let me tell you why we have to do it then i'll talk about the congressional attitude. we have to do it because it's clear in the constitution. we have to do it because it stretches the earlier authorization. but patrick, i believe, we have to do it because the constitutional framework was set up for a reason. and that is don't ask servicemen and women to risk their lives if we the political class haven't done the work to say this is a mission. we've debated it. refined the mission now, mr. president, we're for it. if we're not willing to have that debate make ourselves accountable yes or no and approve it, it's wrong to ask people to risk their lives on a mission we won't bother to put our fingerprints on.

there are two reasons members of congress have advanced that i think are not all bad. it was drafted quickly. didn't have a geographic limitation. it's been used for 14 years. to cover all kinds of things that frankly nobody intended. >> doesn't your bill address that? >> yeah, i have introduced a bill. >> i have introduced a bill but my authorization would support the president's four pillars. certainly humanitarian air strike campaign. training and assisting ground forces. whether it's the iraqi security force or the kurdish peshmerga or moderates in syria providing the assistance. but, my authorization also imposes four key limitations. no ground troops, the president said that.

and i think there's a military rationale that explains why ground troops would also be a serious mistake. a sunset one year congress would have to come back and redebate and reauthorize. geographic limitations. the repeal of the 2002 iraq aumf. and finally, a narrow definition of who we're going after. as you know the 191401 authorization was interpreted by the bush asked obama administrations to allow also going after al qaeda or associated forces. the associated forces definition was so broad as to encompass almost everybody. we've carefully defined who the target is isil in this case. and i think this will be taken up by the senate foreign relations commission along with other authorizations. and i feel confident right now. there is bipartisan support for the mission as the president describes it so long as it's truly a multinational coalition. >> and we're seeing a multinational coalition. we had the u.n. meetings this past week in new york. president obama spoke at it and all the world leaders and had five arab countries go on the attack against isis and syria.

but it was only the united states going after -- why do you think that is? >> i'm not completely sure. obviously going after the khorasan group is covered by the 191401 aumf. there is justification for that and the president may have decided since that's kind of a separate matter and clearly covered by the 01 aumf he could do that without pulling the coalition together. it's frankly an opponent a competitor with isil. but you are right, the president has assembled a good coalition. i've been hard on the white house for this congressional authorization question. but let me be positive now. the elements of the mission as described in the president's speech now two weeks ago i think are carefully thought out. the air strike campaigns, i think, have been carefully designed. and the best thing they've done is this diplomatic work with secretary kerry and the president and others to pull together a coalition. >> and especially, especially arab nations, because if the region won't police itself we

can't help -- we can't battle isil without the region willing to police itself. >> i've got 30 seconds. >> yep. >> general dempsey said this is a year's long campaign. >> he sure did. >> what's the end game? >> well, i think right now i think we -- we can stabilize the situation in iraq pretty significantly, i believe that we can with the coalition, with the iraqi security force and the curds. syria is going to be tougher. it's going to be tougher because assad's a dictator. if we could stabilize iraq, and make sure the problems don't overflow into jordan, turkey and lebanon, provide humanitarian relief inside syria, we will find a path to ultimately a political end to that civil war. >> with the midterm elections only five weeks away there are plenty of military veterans running for office. who they are and what are their chances for winning?

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for the first time watch live local sunday games on nfl mobile. included with the more everything plan exclusively from verizon. when i was elected in 2006 i became the first iraq war veteran elected to the united states congress. it was an honor to serve. by my second term there were four iraq and afghan tan veterans. today, 16 members of congress who served in our generation's wars. but today it's the fewest since world war ii. used to be four out of five members of congress had experience, now it's 1 in 5.

the midterm election in 37 days could change all that. joining me now, the director of george washington university's center for second service. an executive director of veterans campaign. and john salts, an army veteran who also served in iraq and is cofounder and chairman. thanks for joining me today. >> thanks for having me patrick. >> the top ten races. 37 days away. john salts first, what are your top five races out there? >> well obviously, i think first off, we've been focused on a lot of primaries. you know, obviously, patrick, we worked in your race. we like the idea democratic primaries. anthony brown will be the first iraq veteran ever elected as a governor in this country. doug gantsler, we feel great about that. we just came out of a huge race which is probably our number one race in the country.

four tours in iraq took on an incumbent democrat the entire machine. you know obviously, put about $600,000 in there. it was a seat that john tierny could not have held. and as he goes into the general election it's still a harder district it's the most republican district in the state. so the governor's race will play a large issue. >> a great, four tours in afghanistan afghanistan. but in that race, he's getting outspent now 3-1. >> first off, seth has a lot of money. second off you know have the situation where the dccc has reserved air time in that race. and i'm going to tell you, going to go into that back into that race, at least we're looking at it. it's much harder when he's up by eight points to make that justification because he is a front runner at this time. but there is just a zero percent chance that we will not go back in. >> give me the next one.

>> well connie, the state treasurer which is a statewide race in ohio. we find this race very interesting. mostly because we have a real problem with josh mendel. he's had situations when he was running for the senate. he wrote a letter as state treasurer to help someone not be indicted in california. then that individual decided they were going to use straw donors to give him $100,000. connie pillich is a veteran. it's a hard state this cycle, per se. but when you have someone like josh mendel who comes across so soft and hasn't represented veterans well with ethics issues. and there's more in his past that hasn't come out. we think connie pillich has a high ceiling in ohio. you know -- another house race that's really hot right now is the hawaii one seat. that's where colleen ran againstin the primary. hawaii will be the only state in the nation where both are

members in the house of representatives -- >> mark -- >> mark takai. everyone knows the second congressional district. but charles was in that seat before. and he served in iraq and so did mark takai. so essentially, two iraq veterans running for the same house seat. mark should win that seat. his name i.d.'s low right now. it's a race we spent several hundred thousand dollars. we still feel confident that he's going to you know, overcome his you know the situation in the race right now where he's down a few points. >> all right. give me two more. >> well you know that district better than anybody. that's your district. obviously, you know, that's a state where the governor's race is trending toward the democrats. it's an expensive district though, kevin strauss is a big dccc target. and obviously somebody who, you know, the washington establishment is after. and those suburbs are, you know trending a little bit more liberal.

we like that if it doesn't work out this cycle for 2016 if you see him on that ticket with hillary clinton. so -- >> and for the senate on your side? >> well, gary peters you know. we're watching this race. we think that this is the one senate seat. i mean we're spending $7 million in the senate across the board. republicans have opened up you know, obviously iowa colorado they've tried hard to open up michigan. but gary peters is a navy veteran who is in the house. we still that's a hold for the democrats. you know, and it's a race we've already put a couple hundred thousand dollars into. but we feel that gary peters should go to the u.s. senate and be, you know a veteran serving in the senate as we decrease numbers. >> and we serve together. let me turn to seth thank you again for joining us. give me your top five races you're looking at. >> first of all, i agree with john. seth's race -- got behind seth when no one thought he had a chance. same thing happened in 2012. that's a huge win. but john's been focusing on the democrats, although veteran's

campaign is nonpartisan. going to focus on some of the republicans. >> okay. >> you know i think senate is what it's all about this time. so you know first of all, the tightest senate race of all is -- as nate silver calls it at least, 48 to 52 is joanie earnst. leader of the state senate in iowa. she's doing a lot of good things there and i think she has a pretty good chance of winning. in addition, we have dan sullivan in alaska. has a pretty good chance to win this time. most the polling has him leading. you know, i think that he has a pretty good shot at winning. but alaska's kind of hard to poll, as you well know. and syria and arming the syrian rebels is becoming a big issue in the race but obamacare is obviously the bigger one. you know tom cotton down in arkansas, i think he's been struggling to get ahead. some of the polls have him leading. you know, before prior his opponent said that he kind of

acted a little bit entitled and, you know i served in the military, so i should get a senate seat. he came back with a -- an ad focusing on him and his drill sergeant. it was interesting, not sure how well it worked but he's gotten the upper hand right now. and rounding it off, i think scott brown, you know is the biggest long shot of that group. but, you know he has a chance at winning. he's just retired as a full colonel back in may. obviously scott brown being the former senator from massachusetts but -- >> switched districts. >> sure. switched states actually. and then i think, martin from arizona is obviously a race to watch. >> yeah. that's the other one i'd say because, you know, moving on from the senate i think there are a lot of women veterans running this year. there were nine in 2012. there are ten this time. and martha mcsally has the best chance to win. she's in arizona against ron barbour barbour. she lost by 1% of the vote.

she has a good chance of winning in the midterm. there was a bit of controversy where gaby gifford's pac ran an ad against her. her campaign came out and said that's untrue and that she is for that. so they pulled the ad. you know, i'm not sure how much is going to have an effect on the race but i definitely think it may have gotten her on the side of the issue they wanted her to get beside. it may be a victory there. >> well i think there's an upset race out there with bobby mackenzie out in michigan. he's a guy that ran counterterrorism operations for secretary john kerry for state department. he's going against who's been referred to as the foreclosure king. let's talk about you mentioned earlier in dan sullivan race. but then we go to you john soltz. what's going on with isis? how do you think that will affect these races? >> it's confusing, republicans

are running attack ads on democrats no matter which way they vote. very much against arming syrian rebels. we don't support the president on giving these weapons. i think the most interesting, we spent $1 million in there hammering dan sullivan for, you know, bringing foreign company pebble mine that will cut jobs from our veterans on the ground. and sullivan had been held down. but the reason i bring up syria in that race is he went against the president. and so most of these red state democrats in the races that seth talked about, and a lot of them where we're spending money. they can't get over the president's anger. this is really about the fact that like in kentucky you know the president's approval rating is at 32%, alaska's a very republican state. opposed the president arming the rebels. he was trying to show he was against the president. we're polling this every day and going to find out which way this cuts. >> i think, john i think it was helped by the isis -- heating up up -- seth what do you think?

>> i agree with you, patrick. i think in some of these really tight races, it can swing it one way or another. and probably toward the veteran. people are really worried, i think 90% of americans think isis is a threat to the u.s. they have more confidence in members of the military than they do in most of the government. in a really tight race it could be the difference. i think you saw that -- i think you saw it -- out in arizona where he won his primary. both marines. and i think in some of these cases, you know, maybe it's not going to swing it in new hampshire, but i think in iowa it has a pretty good chance of being the difference between winning and losing. >> yeah i think conventional wisdom is people don't know where it stands but i think when you have these type of crises, people are drawn to veteran candidates. seth and john thank you so much for joining us and taking the hill, we do appreciate it and thanks for your continued service. the good, the bad and the ugly. the issues most concerning military members and their families. you're watching "taking the hill" on msnbc. at legalzoom you can take care of

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welcome back to "taking the hill." obviously veterans and their families face unique issues. it's hard to narrow down the most important. but blue star families conducted a survey toll highlight the most pressing issues and concerns facing military families. the top issue, military pay and benefits. with 73% of active duty spouses 64% of veterans and 3 out of every 4 active duty members saying pay in benefits is a main concern. the next biggest issue was a change in retirement benefits. 63% of active duty spouses, 69% of veterans and 75% of active duty members worry about the exchanges. digging deeper shows some of the unfortunately actions of being a military spouse. only 43% of full or part-time job, 58% are unemployed or underemployed, and would like to work more.

69 say a major stress is their spouse's deployments and half feel isolated from friends and family. the results, though aren't all negative. 80% of active duty spouses are happy with their relationship. and also more than 65% of service members say they plan on transferring post 9/11 g.i. benefits to their spouse or child. also whopping 95% said they join the military because they love america. the survey shows we are doing a good job of helping and supporting our military families, but we can and must do more. we salute the blue star families. up next we meet jessie in this month's installment of "wounded the battle back home." and let your voice be heard using the #takingthehill. we are the solis family. and this is our chex commercial. there's lots of choices and each of us has a favorite. like chocolate, honey nut and cinnamon.

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welcome back to taking the hill. we meet jessie, a marine corps veteran who served in iraq and afghanistan. left traumas at war to find a new trauma at home when his son was born premature and gravely ill. >> mental health wounds. how do you overcome physical wounds? is it medication? is it seeking counseling? so much of it from what we've seen as the interaction between warrior to warrior. sharing those common experiences, those struggles, to challenges that have been in the way and how you overcome those. that warrior to warrior relationship is -- as we found the best medicine. >> david. hey, what's up, man it's jesse.

was it two or three days ago? i ran into you? >> it's one of the hardest things i did in the marine corps. it's pounding the pavement, making hauls, going out there. >> hey, tag you're it. you're not the only one, man. hauchb how often do you like to leave your house? they all deal with that same thing. >> i employed the skills i learned as a marine corps recruiter to show veterans how wounded warrior project can help them. >> this is jesse, i met you at the mall. your family you sat down and discussed with your family? or is it just kind of on a whim something you thought about? it's tough, man, what's making you hesitate? >> in everything in life, what's in it for me? >> there's nothing that people do that doesn't have something for them. >> and you've got to show them hey, i can fulfill. i can fill that hole that you have with what you're looking for.

>> yeah, man, you want to grab lunch or something tomorrow? i don't know what your schedule is. >> i'm not just trying to get them in a program i work for because i don't work for the program. i get so much out of it that i want you to get something out of it. >> if it's all right with you, i'd like to bring my wife along. maybe she can talk to your wife and family and tell them what it's like. >> as a marine corps recruiter, i tell them they're joining a brotherhood, a fraternity. we'll take care of them. i think it's important we keep that. because if we don't have each other, then who else has us? >> yeah, so you in, man? >> i finished my contract. out of the marine corps and keeping in touch with these guys was big for me. we have these get togethers. you know all the other wounded warrior alumni or veterans i know. we get our families together and like a poker night type deal. >> all right.

>> yeah. that's the only thing i know how to play. going to be go fish here in a little bit. >> i've got -- i've got chris, a guy i recruited and kept in touch with and trying to help now after and i've got jason who is my mentee then i've got leo i've worked with and spent the last seven years together. our kids play together our wives help each other. >> we're playing. >> daddy, i don't know how to play this game. >> okay. >> don't worry. you're not the only one. >> you look at it. you tell everybody what cards he has. >> we don't choose poker night because we're good at poker. one, we choose poker because none of our wives want to sit around while we're playing poker. >> so we're getting our unbuffered free time to talk about the things we don't -- the stories we don't tell our

significant other because we don't want them to have to visualize and think about what we've done. >> i think veterans are a unique species. i think being around people that are as unique ands we are is a huge comfort. >> i hit the bottom of the hill with my family. got into a really deep dark spot in my life. i thought i was going to lose it all, and thadt'd be it. and i don't want to think about what would've happened if the wounded warrior project wasn't there. if jesse wasn't there to help me through things. and he's been there every step of the way i needed him. he's been through harder than i've gone through. i think i'm at the bottom and he's been through worse. how do you get through it? how do you cope? >> for as long as i can remember, i was going to go to the military. that was my drive. my drive was to get through school so that i could go to boot camp.

>> by the end of february 2004 i was on the -- and we were headed to afghanistan. the job was to go through this area that had been untouched and since we make our presence known. we conducted recon by ambush. we purposely drive and get through these mountain passes and hear on the radio, they see us they're planning to hit us around the next turn. okay. we purposely drive right into the ambush that they were setting up for us and fight. and walk out unscathed. and take a bunch of them. realizing that they were calling us essentially death walkers. they stopped attacking us they realized what trucks were our trucks and they didn't want any of it. but it was great. our operations were successful.

we came home from that deployment. we got to enjoy being home for two weeks before they said, hey we're going to iraq. this is when ieds started. the attack of choice. it was april 23rd. we were conducting operations like we normally do. i think we were shooting the outskirts of fallujah. one of the major jobs was to make sure the roadways were clear. you kind of had the responsibility or the task of hopefully seeing the ied. in this day, i didn't see it. i missed it. we drove past it. and they didn't hit my truck.

it was never the first truck that got hit. there's no way to describe what it sounds like and what it feels like. i immediately flipped around and there was a huge black cloud. a few of the guys in the truck were injured, but the one that had caught the brunt of the blast and the shrapnel was -- and we would purposely lay in front of a corpsman to save his life so he could be there to save another marine. and at this point, it was doc that was hurt. just remember all the blood, you know, and had hands in places

you know, you normally wouldn't have a hand in to stop the bleeding. last memory i have was walking him and he was barely hanging on and putting him on the bed. and tell him, i'll see you in a little bit, doc. we'll see you in a little bit. they tell you not to what if. but what if i would have seen it? what if i would have seen the wires? we had our memorial service and

we can move on. we continue operations. about two weeks later, i get a phone call. my wife at the time, she was in labor. he was premature. so i hopped flights back home and they said my son had contracted what's a bacteria that eats away at you. and for the next couple of years he was going to require close medical attention. but at this point, it was pretty much decided by my command that it'd probably be better for me to stay. >> when jesse moved down here and he was clearly in a hard time in his life you know. he moved down here he knew nobody. his family was up in louisiana, his second family, the marines and the people he deployed with were up in north carolina. so he got pulled from a comfortable place and got put into a place where he didn't know anybody. he was completely out of touch with everybody for the benefit of his child. >> our commanding officer said

you ever thought about recruiting duty? no. that's complete opposite of what i want to do. he said yeah but that's one way you can stay active duty and have a chance of staying here. it was hard because being a marine corps recruiter is a lot of work. i had to sneak in time to see my son when he was in the hospital when i could. and one of the times we were at the hospital, all of a sudden he went to a seizure. and at that point, i think is when they pretty much said the seizure was because his body's done. we had a couple of meetings with doctors, you know, me, the ex-wife and her family and my family and basically came to the decision he had fought long enough. we had family in the room and friends, close friends, leo was there.

and for the first time in his entire life his mom and i got to hold him without any equipment on him. >> it made a lot of us grow up, realize how precious life is. i think if not just as much maybe a little bit more so than combat did. and jesse i've seen something i've never seen in somebody else, the internal trent he had was to me absolutely inspiring. >> in a moment how jesse's family learned to help. we're watching "taking the hill" on msnbc. u think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently if

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>> you've got your stack of you know things that you feel were wrong that you deal with. my bad things would be losing friends, taking lives. things that keep us awake. things that alter our life. and i've got my stack of things that are good. you know, and it's adding that other one, you know get somebody in, that stack gets a little bigger. and hopefully one day those stacks even out or the good becomes more than, you know, the bad. >> don't knock it down. >> leo actually introduced me to whitney. >> he was just night and day from what i was used to. and as a step dad, jesse took my daughter as if she was his. he's always been an amazing father, but i think losing a child, it's just -- i mean, he's

stepped it up a notch. maybe 17 notches, really. i mean, he's a phenomenal father. >> hey, buddy. hold on, wait. >> being the spouse of a veteran is challenging. he kept it from me for a good while before i realized that, you know, he was really struggling with ptsd. the biggest challenge in our household is going out into a public place that is crowded. and when he had his first episode, he went on a downward spiral. >> when we were over there it was normal to think everybody's trying to kill you. you come home and you can't do that. but then we can't not do that. and a lot of our issues with crowds just comes with the overall crowded markets in iraq. we don't know the person that's standing next to us. are they there to try to hurt

me? are they there to try to hurt my family? head on a swivel. you're walking around constantly looking. i play out whole scenarios in my head. guy comes out in that door and he's got a pistol and starts firing. okay, there's an eric herexit here and an exit here. i need to throw them behind this table. it's so ingrained. there's times i've reacted to things that weren't happening. >> normal relationships, people hold hands, i often when we're in a crowd have to go behind him, hold the back of his pants, hold his hand. >> -- behind me, making like a ring around me. like a ring of safety. your family learns how to help you. >> i love my husband.

so whatever it takes. >> it's hard to feel like you should be a part of wounded warrior project if you don't have those physical injuries you know. when we think wounded, we think of our buddies missing limbs or having surgery or they got shot, you know. it's for us, too. i guess i got in the program, i didn't find that it was only benefitting me. it was benefitting my wife. it was benefitting my kids. of course, first thing i did was call the guys i knew immediately. hey, guys this programming, you've got to check it out. wounded warrior project can help them and help their families more importantly. >> when we get together and everything, you know the kids do their thing, the husbands do their thing and we get, you know, we kind of form our own little circle of trust. >> lately, he has -- i for one

have a temper. i mean the puerto rican in me. >> i was going to say. >> with one another that each other, we weren't alone. it was great to talk to somebody that understood. >> when they do stuff together it pushes them. even if you're having a bad day or anything like that just call us. once they start hanging around together it's a lot better. than just you. >> want to go with me? >> being a recruiter helped me. it helps me find those other veterans. it helps me convince them to leave their house. >> it's important for us to have each other so we don't feel alone. being alone causes a lot of the bad things to happen. we shed light on each other's lives. i think we are each other's flashlights in the darkness.

>> when people ask me what's the best thing about wounded warrior project some of the events they send us to. with the other wounded warrior alumni and my family. >> one of the big ones is going down to the keys and going to the dolphin research center, the drc. >> i love that place. there is so much personality that comes out of these wonderful animals. they're amazing. so going there always brings out the best in not just me as a spouse but my husband, the veteran and the children love it. >> we went down there and we came back i was different. i was more relaxed. i didn't seem like a balloon that was about to pop. >> these dolphins aren't magic. they are accepting you for who you are, whether you are missing a limb you have traumatic

injuries, whether it's post traumatic stress whatever it is. they just accept you for who you are. that's a rare exception. >> jacks is a wounded warrior. we have seen some of his injuries, like the one on his abdomen and the one with on his torso. we found out it was a six-foot bull shark that bit him. >> as far as in the wild defensively -- >> don't fight them. you'll lose. they don't like to fight. but when they do, they win. it's like marines. >> so the oak sign and he'll go up right about here. when he does a nice circle in the air, blow the whistle, nice and loud.

jesse has always been the type of person that likes to help. wounded warrior project has given him a reason to help others. >> i'm grateful that i have that training to be able to talk to people find the need behind the need and show them where they can get the help or fulfillment from. it's back being around other people like us. it's back being around people that aren't going to judge the way we are. it goes back to it's always there. by telling you about it and getting you in i'm not only trying to help you. i'm helping me deal with pi own issues. helping the veteran boosts my good stack. the selfish reason for doing what we do is to help me on the

back end. >> we'll be right back after the break. this is "taking the hill." ♪ music plays ♪ ♪ music plays ♪ traveling can feel like one big mystery. you're never quite sure what is coming your way. but when you've got an entire company who knows that the fewest cancellations and the most on-time flights are nothing if we can't get your things there, too.

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tensions between the ferguson, missouri police and residents may have just risen more. an officer shot last night. right now the suspect is still on the run. another black eye for the secret service. a new report details the night bullets hit the white house. we have all the details. dramatic video of a deadly volcano eruption in japan. hundreds of hikers were climbing the mountain when gas, ash and smoke burst into the air. everything went dark. dozens are trapped. we'll have the latest in the search to find them. a bold step in