when i first met crystal last month while touring bethesda naval base, her story illustrated that. crystal is here today to talk about the human cost, and that cost is not limited exclusively to the servicemembers and veterans who fought and are fighting our wars, it is also fell by the families of these heroes who worked tirelessly to support their loved ones through deployment and rehabilitation, day in and day out. many like crystal have given up their own jobs to become full-time caregivers, and advocates for their loved ones. last month while testifying before the senate appropriations subcommittee on defense, chairman of joint chiefs of staff, admiral mullen told me that without the family members we would be nowhere in these wars. i couldn't agree more, and after you hear crystals story that will be even more clear. as the members of this committee know, over the course of the last few hearings we have examined how the veterans of today's conflicts are faced with unique challenges that va and dod are often fallen short of meeting. we have explored mental health care gaps tha

and it wasn't till 36 days later got back to the bethesda naval in new york, where i finally woke up and was able to start to remember somewhat of what happened to us out there. >> and you wrote a very moving piece about gabby giffords soon after the attempt to kill her, which i read at the time. and you were sort of predicting how you felt it could have gone. you were quite optimistic when ny were pessimistic because having been through what you'd been through, arguably you started from a worse place. you were in a coma for 36 days. she wasn't. you know, she came round quicker than you did. so you could see possible life at the end of the tunnel, couldn't you? >> yeah. and i think people are kind of surprised. when you see at first what happened -- i've seen this and i've done stories. times about those that were badly injured. now, nobody gets back to 100% of the way they we before. but it goes in some ways better. slower, generally, for everybody, the recovery. but it goes better than you thought. i mean, certainly there she was, you know, shot right in the head. unconscious in th

body floating underneath me, and i did not wake up until 36 days later, back in the u.s., in the bethesda naval. and one of the very first thing that i said to my wife was i saw my body floating below. and she wrote down all the details of this. what i said. and i told her, i said i saw, you know, whiteness. i said there was no pain, it was comfortable. in some ways that i thought maybe i should just stay here, i should not even go back. and it turns out that i met so many others that felt the same. you know, we put part of our book about this, you know, 4 1/2 years ago we came out with, and i got so many calls after that from people who have seen something very similar when they've had difficulties or believed they were going to die. some even said they did die and then they came back over the line. so it's very interesting to take a look. we want journalistically in this case to try to see what people feel like, what it looks like to them, what doctors think about this, what do scientists think. we even had a conversation with an atheist who also saw something very similar to those that are v

>> so i went into bethesda naval hospit, talked with these youn men and women 20, 21, 22 years old and they had been seriously injured. one of them lost both of his legs. of the lost the use of his right arm and part of his lung. another lost a good part of his hearing so i said to each e of them what do you want to do to recover. they all say to you i want to go back to my unit. i want to go back to my unit. but the fact was that they weren't going to be able to go back to their unit. and you know, one of thing lost both of his legs like i said and i wasn't going to be able to go back to his unit but he still wanted to serve. when i asked him i said what would you want to do if you can't go back to your unit right away, he said to me i'd really like to find a way to go back home and be a teacher. another wanted to be a police officer, another one said to me that he wanted to find a way to go home to be a football coach and a mentor. it just became really clear to me that all of these men still had a desire to serve. and that in addition to hearing thank you, they also needed to hear f

instantly knocked out, unconscious an it wasn't until 36 days later got back to the bethesda naval in new york where i finally woke up and was able to start to remember somewhat of what happened to us out there. >> you wrote a moving piece about gabrielle giffords soon after the attempt to kill her, which i read at the time. you were sort of predicting how you felt it could have gone. you were optimistic when many were pessimistic because having been through what you had been through, arguably you started from a worst place, you were in a coma for 36 days. she wasn't. she came around quicker than you did. you could see the light at the end of the tunnel, couldn't you? >> yeah. i think people are surprised. when you see what happened -- i have seen this and done stories many times about those badly injured. nobody gets back to 100% the way they were before, but it goes in some ways better, slower generally for everybody, the recovery but it goes better than you thought. >> the extraordinary thing talking to you, bob, is if i hadn't known your story, you seem completely normal in every

june has been working on things like this since his old days at the bethesda naval hospital and we werego. this is still probably going to need five to ten more years of good work before we can get it out to large numbers of people if it works then. we've helped three patients so far, and hopefully we're going to be able to help more, but it's going to take some time. >> dr. june, what type of leukemia did you actually study here? >> well, first of all, i want to emphasize what dr. breauly said it's entirely true. it takes an average five to ten years to get fda approval and to make something like this generally available, and that's a large task ahead, and the patients, specifically we've treated had chroniclymphocytic leukemia, the most chronic leukemia in adults. >> why was the study so small? i know we're talking about three patients here. >> well, it was a pilot study, the first time that this had been tested, and we were only able to get enough funding to do that, to treat initially to see if it would be safe or not and then -- now we plan to continue the study and -- and, you kno

specifically from walter reed medical hospital to the naval hospital in bethesda, maryland. that's where a number of military injured have been for a long time at walter reed, now being relocated in anticipation of this state of emergency now declared by the mayor of the city. athena jones is also live in washington, d.c. athena, the relocation of a number of those veterans, that was to take place anyway just from some restructuring of how the war injured are being treated. but they just accelerated it quite a bit because of hurricane irene, right? >> reporter: that's right. they've been planning to close down walter reed. this is the last transfer -- the last set of patients to be transferred. they were planning on doing it tomorrow. but instead, they moved it up by a day. this all took place this morning between about 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. they transferred 18 patients in 18 ambulances from walter reed to the navy medical center in bethesda. this closing of the hospital has been long planned. they just want to shift the transfer up to get ahead of the storm. several different

they will take the patients over to the national naval medical center in bethesda, maryland. doctors are telling anybody expecting to give birth in the next few days to pack their bags now in case. believe it or not, when the barometer drops with the hurricane, some experts say it can cause a woman's water to break early. so there is a concern for expectant mothers and a concern for cell towers. earlier we had an earthquake and all of the cell lines were tied up. it was impossible to make a call. now the worry is something can happen to one of the cell towers from the hurricane that could interrupt service even worse. >> we think about the elderly. we think about those in the hospitals and we forget those pregnant women. i can't imagine. i heard the full moon, but not the barometer. what about the transportation? in the city they are closing the subways at noon and five area airports closed as well. what is it like there? >> so far right now everything is basically the way it should be at 3:18 in the morning in dc. they are expecting major delays as the day comes through. >>

news to report, the last transfer of patients from walter reed medical center to the naval medical center in bethesda was mutual fuoved up t morning. between 7:00 and 9:00 this morning, they moved about the last 18 patients from that center, just to get ahead the storm. some of them are wounded warriors. some were in critical condition. they moved them in 18 ambulances. that happened between about 7:00 and 9:00 this morning. >> can want help but notice the washington monument behind you. we know it suffered some cracks from the earthquake earlier in the week. what are they doing, if anything, to brace for what could be pretty significant hurricane force winds? >> reporter: the big news on that happened yesterday when the engineers were out trying to plug the holes that were created by the earthquake on tuesday. they were stuffing, jamming this flexible insulation into these holes to try to plug it up and prevent any leakage or further damage. they also did some work to the smithsonian castle behind me also damaged in the earthquake. they tried to secure that. it's been a big week here in washington i