kristen fisher caught up with one of them at the armed forces retirement home here in washington. >> i just -- >> reporter: not easy getting 94-year-old francis devy to sit down and look back on his life. he's still trying to forget what happened 70 years ago today. >> there are times in my sleep if i get a little chance of it, it drives me crazy. >> we had a photograph taken before pearl harbor. >> reporter: he was a 24-year- old proift in the army, eating breakfast in the dining hall when -- >> bang, bang, bang, bang. we didn't know what it was. with the chinese new year, all it was that somebody had shot through the window, knock the budgets off the table. >> reporter: he and his buddies ran outside. at first they thought it was a drill; but then -- >> they came over top of us, a guy on my right got his jaw shot off and a guy on my left got his legs shot off. i said, "if it gets worse, shoot me." >> reporter: we all know too well that it did get much worse, but he survived to fight five other battles in world war ii. >> don't know how i kept it together. >> rehe tired back in 1961

kristen fisher caught up with some of the finalists of the university's hovercraft competition. >> we are team cool blue. >> meet cool blue, one of the student built hovercrafts that made the finals. >> i can tell you we were in the lan until 2:00 a.m. last night. so going on with very little sleep. teams frantically trying to get things to work. >> one of cool blue's rivals the quarter pounder with cheese is also struggling. >> that struggles, the problem solving. that is the whole point to this competition. that is the culmination of an entire semester's worth of work. >> they love it. that the majority of them do not fully work. what they are asked to do is to decide a hovercraft that is able to locate a pedestal, fire a pay load and exit traffic. >> reporter: these teams have been competing throughout the weekend. the winning team will get 500 bucks and bragging rights. some teams never make it past the first stage. >> definitely there is a feeling of disappointment. >> reporter: others finish better than expected, like this team that's still in high school. but every team is endi

kristen fisher, 9news now. >>> what a story. the cause of that fire is still under investigation. >>> this one is just hard for me to believe. but there was pushing, there was shoving. each arrests. even pepper spray all over a pair of shoes. police had to get the crowds under control at shopping malls in our area and all across the country. surae chinn shows us the chaos. >> >> reporter: the newest air jordans are the hottest sneakers you can get your hands on, according to the people who stood in line for hours. for some, it paid off. people passed near the entrances of shopping mall overnight. >> there were probably 500 people waiting for them. >> reporter: at westfield montgomery mall, lorenzo got lucky. >> i have been here since 4:00 in the morning. >> reporter: why are these so special? why did you have to stay out here and get these shoes? >> these are the number one jordans. everybody wants these. these come out every six years i would say. >> reporter: across the country the same scenario, folks lined up overnight pushi

kristen fisher introduces us to one of those kids who's christmas wish is something many of us take forranted. >> i love you mommy. >> it's easy to see why diamond whitaker will do anything for her son trenton. >> i will work hard for whatever it is that my son needs so he can stay in school and can be somebody in life. >> but getting to school is a daily struggle. >> yesterday i didn't have no money but i made sure i brought him to school. >> dom is dying to go back to school herself shesm has been out of a job since july and sleeps every night with her son on a friend's catch. >> i have until the end of december to find a place to stay or basically we will be homeless. >> with is why on tuesdaydom camped out in the cold and rain for 17 hours trying to get subsidized housing. on a year long waiting list. another dead end. >> i feel left alone. i feel like it's just me and my son against the world. >> ask her son what he wants most in this world and he says. >> now diamond's son is just one of 21,000 school aged children living in poverty in the district. it's a number that has jumped 5

kristen fisher. 9news now. >>> the tip for continue's game just after 7:00 p.m. you can probably get tickets as well. kristen is there with a preview coming up later in sports. >>> the christmas holiday has now come and gone with no sign of a blind man who mysteriously disappeared while on an amtrak train from washington a week and a half ago. mitchell malik smith's family hoped he would contact them somehow over the holidays, but nobody called. scott broom is with that anxious family tonight. >>> none of the callers have the information this family wants. >> he is completely blind. >> where is 33-year-old mitchell malik smith? a vulnerable adult who is 100% blind and hat not been seen by his family since leaving here december 16th? >> if he is okay, he will call. >> reporter: grandmother madeleine smith says mitchell left washington's union station on an amtrak train. he was seen getting off that train during a stop in charlotte, north carolina. apparently confused about a connection to birmingham. blindness not helping at all. >> the confusion when they told him

. >> reporter: in deal city, kristen fisher, 9 news now. >> yeah, and last year four state troopers were hit and injured in northern virginia, two less than in 2010. >>> today the tacoma education center in northwest reopened its doors exactly one year after a devastating fire. the work was destroyed, furniture and supplies. the kids had to attend another school while theirs was repaired and remodeled. lindsay mathis brings us a sneak peek. >> reporter: crews are finishing up, sweeping the halls and painting. they completed a renovation in record time. it's been exactly one year since the school caught fire. nancy smith was there. >> the build was destroyed. i mean, the flames were just pouring of the windows. it just seemed like a disaster, and what it turned into is such a blessing. >> reporter: classrooms are being furnished with new desks and computers. for little ones there's playsets. >> before this school, you know, it was a classy building. this room used to be the principal's office. people who remember it say it was very dark. now they transformed it into the cafeteria. there w

kristen fisher here with a waldorf woman who has gotten to know the docs who saved her life. >> not just her life, but her babies' lives as well. two years ago, she was 7 and a half months pregnant when she blacked out behind the wheel while driving on temple hill road in clinton. >> the car veered off the side of the road, hit a tree, flipped over a 30-foot embankment, and the car went topside into a creek. >> shaunee davis was unconscious, pregnant and trapped in a car slowly filling with water. >> they say i was in the water for 10 minutes before they found me. >> she was rushed to southern maryland hospital. >> came in as what we call a cardiac arrest. so her heart had stopped. >> she had a pulse, but she was unresponsive. >> reporter: dr. emil tried to save her in this room in the er. >> she was very close to dying. very close. she was critically ill, and her odds for survival were extremely low. >> reporter: she was transferred to the washington hospital center where, incredibly, she survived, and six weeks later, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. >> you never know when it's yo