>> i took my phone and made a video to my husband -- telling him i love him. >> reporter: it was domenic who climbed out and ran for help. a neighbor, sheriff's deputy brian lovens came running with friends to find stephanie with a severed leg and bleeding heavily. >> she's like, i'm dying. i ain't going to let you die. >> reporter: using a belt as a tourniquet they got her out and into an suv for a mad dash to an ambulance. stephanie's husband joe only knew his wife had stopped texting from the basement. >> are you okay? are you guys okay? >> reporter: he rushed home to find this. it was at the hospital he learned of stephanie's injuries. one leg severed at the knee, the other at the ankle. the kids didn't have a scratch. >> she's alive and the kids are alive. so i told her, you get to see your kids grow up. that's all that matters. >> i love you. >> i love you, too. >> reporter: at the hospital today stephanie said she's no hero. >> i love my kids. >> reporter: one family built on a foundation of love, faith and sacrifice. tom costello, nbc news, henryville, indiana. >>> we'll take a b

domenic and reese, you are awfully lucky kids to have a mom like this., okay? >> okay. thank you. >> thank you. keep us posted on your recovery, okay? we wish you the best. >> i will. >> we're back after this. when we walk together, we are bigger than cancer. join the world's biggest fight for more birthdays, the american cancer society relay for life. find your community's event at relayforlife.org. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental he

telling him i love him. >> reporter: that's when 8-year-old domenic climbed out of the rubble and ran for help. a neighbor, sheriff's deputy brian lovins came running to find stephanie bleeding heavily. >> she's like, i'm dying, i'm dying. i said, i ain't gonna let you die. >> reporter: realizing her leg was severed brian used a belt as a tourniquet. it saved her life. >> her kids were able to get out and call for help. so her kids saved her life. >> i prayed to have the strength to survive. i wanted these kids to have a mom. i didn't want them to grow up without me. >> reporter: they're not going to grow up without her. she's alive and in fair condition. both kids survived without injury amazingly. they will now know for the rest of their lives how much their mother loves them and the sacrifice she was willing to make. natalie, back to you. >> so true. thank goodness for the quick-thinking neighbor as well. tom costello with a great story in louisville, kentucky. thank you very much. give her our best wishes. the u.s. and israel are presenting a united front for now against a nuclear

telling him i love him. >> reporter: that's when 8-year-old domenic climbed out of the are you ab of the rubble and ran for help. they came to find stephanie bleeding heavily. >> she's like, i'm dying. i said, i ain't gonna let you die. >> reporter: realizing her leg was severed brian used a belt as a tourniquet. it saved her life. >> her kids were able to get out and call for help. so her kids saved her life. >> i wanted the kids to have a mom. i didn't want them to grow up without me. >> reporter: stephanie and the kids were in the basement when brian and his friends came running. brian is torn up about all of this. here's what's amazing. the kids were completely unharmed. not a scratch. for the rest of their lives they will know in a real way the love of their mother and the sacrifice she was willing to make. matt. >> boy, will they? what a remarkable story. thank you very much. here's ann. >> matt, thanks. now to a disturbing story involving serious allegations of rape inside the u.s. military. nbc's national investigative correspondent michael isikoff has details for us. good mo

she was home alone with 8-year-old domenic and 5-year-old reese when the storm with 175 mile per hour winds began ripping the home to shreds. alone in their new home with a tornado fast approaching, stephanie decker knew the only chance she and the kids had of surviving was to wrap them in a blanket and lay on top of them. >> everything started hitting my back. beams, pillars, furniture. everything was just slamming into my back. i had my children in the blanket and i was on top of them. i was reaching around, holding them and they were screaming. mommy, i can't live without you. i don't want to die. don't let me die. i said you're not going to die. we're going to make it. >> reporter: when the storm cleared the home was gone, wiped from the foundation with stephanie and the kids buried in the rubble. >> it was my leg. i realized either it was cut off or it was barely attached. i took my phone, made a video to my husband. telling him i love him. >> reporter: that's when 8-year-old domenic climbed out of the rubble and ran for help. a neighbor, sheriff's deputy brian levins came to fin

and i said, domenic, i'm going to bust your butt if you don't answer me and he goes, yes, mommy, i'm >> she just reacted how she's going to react. i mean she would literally do anything for the kids and she's always been that way. >> i was yelling for help. nobody could hear me because i had punctured lungs. i couldn't catch my breath to yell. i was screaming but it was killing me. i finally heard voices. and i said, oh, my goodness. >> when i got to the hospital, i rupp in, of course, and where's stephanie decker, i'm looking for stephanie decker. the doctors are working on her. said i wa. to see her. they said, okay, here's the situation. her one leg is gone. >> can you reattach it? if you can reattach it, please, reattach it. i'll give anything to have my leg on. >> i was wondering how we're going to make it, how she's going to make it. she's such an active person. she's obviously beautiful and i knew this would bother her. i mean i was the one who said, get the kids, go to the house. you know -- if they'd have died -- >> i've learned that, you know, i can make it through that. ca

first interview, decker tells abc news as the storm approached she dashed into the basement with domenic and little reece just 5 years old. >> i put the children in -- it was a comforter. and i tied the comforter. and my daughter said, i don't like this. i said, i know. >> reporter: then came the cascade of debris and immediate agony. >> i was yelling. i have a punctured lung and seven broken ribs. yelling was hard to do. >> reporter: then she looked down, her legs both crushed. >> i knew i was cut. but i realized that i'm either barely attached for completely severed. i knew if it didn't get help soon, i was going to bleed out. >> reporter: then this hero mother watched as a new hero emerged. her son, dominic, raced for help. >> if nothing else happened, if i didn't make it, i died right here today, then my kids were okay. >> reporter: hours later, their mom was in the hospital, her legs amputated. but her family still intact. >> i'm not going to let this ruin my life. >> reporter: left in the driveway, a testament to the family's survival. reese and "d" for dominic. >> we wanted the ki

late last year i heard domenic bartley, the managing ceo of mckinsey speak at a conference in france and the gave a remarkable talk in which he said their biggest clients were clamoring and wanted an industrial policy in america, that they felt that, these are large-scale multinational corporations for which those two words were about as you could imagine. and he said they all wanted, but they saw a directionless washington tied up and not moving ahead. i tweeted it at the time, and thought that i would have, you know, the high priest of mckinsey come and pound on my door for misquoting their guy, but he stood by it. when i talk to the folks in the white house and some the people who were involved in the auto bailout and also looking at of strategic sectors, one of the individuals whom i can't name said we can't say the an industrial policy inside the obama white house, that those two words immediately stop discussion. maybe things have changed, but you sit on the inside of some of these meeting and your their allegedly found on the table with barack obama telling him what to do. is