dozens of shots fired as people scrambled for cover. >> they started shooting at us and the bullet went between me and my friend tony. we could hear the bullets bouncing off the concrete behind us. >> it started when the suspect described as a 51-year-old maple valley man stopped his car in traffic and started confronting people with an assault rifle. eventually opening fire. >> when we were about alongside the elementary school, we got shot at nine times. >> police swarmed the city crowded with shoppers and people enjoying the warm day. he fired randomly for about half a mile. at one point, a sheriff's department sniper took to the air to take him out with reports of him shooting an at police. he was moving toward the high school where a little league football game was going on. >> he said do not come to the game now. there's a shooting. >> outside the high school. >> police told us they have the suspect pinned down. >> parents texted their kids hiding, hoping to escape the gunman. >> i'm worried. i want to make sure he's okay. police evacuated the stands filled with young players and their families. >> they're huddled under the bleachers scared out of their minds. >> everybody's terrified out there. >> my wife, i've never seen anything like this. >> before the gunman made it that far, a cop on the ground shot him dead before he harmed a single person. >> our priority was to stop him from moving and get him to stop shooting and we were able to do both of those. >> to have something like this happen on a beautiful saturday, it's shocking. >> you're able to see in eric's story from our affiliate king police apparently prevented what almost certainly would have been a massacre by the gunman. stay tuned for details on this story. we want to go to florida where the high profile murder trial of bob ward has ended in a conviction. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty of second degree murder as charged in the information. >> the trial lasted about a week. ward's defense argued that diane ward died in 2009 of accidental gunshot and accidental gunshot to the face but the jury wasn't convinced. ward's daughters sobbed at the verdict. prosecutors had hammered away at inconsistencies in ward's story and then there was this bizarre jailhouse video just days after his wife died, ward apparently performing a striptease for his daughter and sister-in-law. all three acted like him being arrested was a big joke. our legal expert holly hughes says ward presented his defense team with an uphill battle in trying to get an acquittal. >> when you very calmly say five times, i shot my wife and you don't at the time, you're not hysterical. >> there's no urgency, nothing in his voice. >> right and he's not hysterical, not saying get here and help her. so the best they could do is say, well, yes he already admitted firing the gun but what we can do is now say it accidentally went off. he didn't intend to fire the gun. she was trying to kill herself. so unfortunately, sometimes by the time a lawyer gets a case, client's already put them in a bad position. >> the defense is expected to file an appeal. president obama took his jobs message to the congressional black caucus tonight, an audience that's sympathetic to his cause but worried his policies aren't getting through to constituents. african-americans hit hard by unemployment. the president used his remarks to make a strong push for his plan and went after republicans who have opposed his efforts. >> these republicans in congress like to talk about job creators. how about doing something real for job creators? pass this jobs bill and every small business owner in america, including 100,000 black-owned businesses will get a tax cut. you say you're the party of tax cuts? pass this jobs bill. and every worker in america including nearly 20 million african-american workers will get a tax cut. pass this jobs bill and prove you'll fight just as hard for a tax cut for ordinary folks as you do for all your contributors. >> we've been hearing that a lot from the president lately. earlier we previewed the president's speech with congresswoman sheila jackson lee of texas. she agreed to join us again. congresswoman, thank you very much for joining us again. what did you think? >> don, thank you for having me. >> what did you think? >> well, the president remember in the earlier interview i said determined, persistent. but the president reached in his heart, heard the american people. really heard the congressional black caucus and tonight, don, he took his gloves off. he took those gloves off and he simply said i'm going to lead. i'm the captain of the ship. i'm not going to let the american ship, the american boat where our people are sinking sink under my leadership and going to demand of the republicans to stand for the american people and not for selfish interests. i hope they heard him. we heard him. we're prepared to in essence, be ready for this fight and recognize the devastation in the african-american community. i'm very glad he highlighted the plight of african-americans along with americans and let everybody know we're in the same leaking boat together. >> let me get in on this. i want to know if you think -- you said he took the gloves off. this something you would like to see more of from him? >> well, don, i said earlier that the president has a way of interacting. he respects the institution of the presidency and the congress. he wanted to work in a collaborative cooperative way. knew there would be conflict but still wanted to be able to resolve a problem. one of the points he made tonight is that we came out of this -- or came into this recession not on what we as democrats did but it's been coming on for a long time through the last administration, trying to come out of it, he has faced fierce opposition. republicans have not agreed to anything. so i think to answer the question, yes, i want to see him represent the american people. if one group doesn't want to represent them, then i want the president to do so. i think that's what he announced tonight. >> if you're listening to the clips that we played, he said, you know, pass this bill. we've heard him say that. there were other parts of the speech if you're just the casual observer, i don't know, it sounded like a campaign speech. it sounded like a campaign speech and that there was nothing new from this except what he had been saying before. you were there. is that true? tell us what you thought. >> well, i really do think there is a recommitment and an energized commitment to finding a way to empowering parts of this legislation. we've heard words like dead on arrival, we heard that it won't pass. i think the president in his heart knows the federal government has to do something. he asked the question, the republican party is the party of tax cuts. why won't they do it now? they're the party of building roads. why won't they join in building roads? if i saw a difference tonight, i really saw the president rolling up his sleeves using a lot of elbow grease and really getting in their face and asking the question, why. >> we're going to have to leave it there just for time us. we appreciate you joining us again. thank you, congresswoman. >> thank you so very much. it's got to be all of us, don. bye-bye. >> have a good night. we want to turn to the candidates who want to defeat barack obama in next year's election. a huge political upset saturday in florida where herman cain won a straw poll of republican activists. florida governor rick scott made the big announcement. >> tonight's winner with 986 votes, 37.1 percent, herman cain! [ applause ] >> and guess what? it wasn't even close. cain got 37% of the votes. rick perry was second but far behind with 15%. and then mitt romney was third with 14%. it was a major blow to perry who was favored to win. he had quoted activists for weeks and paid for glossy flyers to be distributed throughout the convention hall. cain issued a statement calling his win "a sign of our growing momentum and our candidacy that cannot be ignored." up next, a bake sale that's leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many, a cookie, a brownie, whatever you like. the cost? well, it depends on the color of your skin. ngine ngine run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil. ♪ [ dog barks ] [ birds chirping ] ♪ [ mechanical breathing ] [ engine turns over ] ♪ [ male announcer ] the all-new volkswagen passat. a new force in the midsize category. ♪ just having some tender chicken and some tasty noodles. let's see...south western vegetables...60 calories. ya' know those jeans look nice. they do? yup. so you were checking me out? yup. [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. i've got to tell susie ! the vending machine on elm is almost empty. i'm on it, boss. new pony ? sorry ! we are open for business. let's reroute greg to fresno. growing businesses use machine-to-machine technology from verizon wireless. susie ! the vending machine... already filled. cool bike. because the business with the best technology rules. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. bake sales are the at least controversial event that you can think of. but there's going to be one in california where what you pay depends on the color of your skin and also your gender. here are the prices. $2 for white people. $1.50 for asians, a dollar for latinos, 75 cents for blacks, a quarter for native americans and all women get an extra quarter off. college republicans are putting on the sale at the university of california-berkeley on tuesday. it's actually a protest of sorts against legislation that would allow uc to consider race or national origin in its admission process. for tonight's what matters, our partnership with "essence" magazine, i spoke with the president of the berkeley college republicans, sean lewis and tim wise, author of white like me, reflections on race from a printed son. lewis says he knows this bake sale is pushing buttons for a lot of people. >> we did expect opposition. we expected a lot of outrage for this event. we didn't expect first the volume, the amount of response that we got in the first few hours, hundreds of posts on our facebook page. secondly, the tone of some of the responses. we expected people to be upset. we didn't expect personal threats to be made. there were implicit and explicit threats made to the organizers of the event to burning down the table to throwing our baked goods at us and other kinds of physical threats. >> you have no plans on canceling this bake sale on tuesday, right? >> no, the bake sale will go on. with the pricing structure. >> so tim wise, do the berkeley college republicans have a point? >> well, i'm not sure. i mean, you know, it seems like there are a lot of ways to make a point about your disagreement with affirmative action, for instance, without doing a sarcastic rather smarmy slap at people of color. i get the joke, their joke is they believe that affirmative action holds people of color to a lower standard and they are going to also hold them to a different pricing structure for their brownies. it's been done for 15 years. it's not an original joke. the point that needs to be made and which they often ignore and conservative students generally ignore, by the time anyone steps on a college campus whether it's berkeley or any other school in the system or any college in this country, there has already been 12 to 13 years of institutionalized affirmative action for white folks. that is to say racially embedded inequality which benefited those of us who are white and it's only at the point of college admission these folks seem to get concerned with thinking about race. there's been 13 years. right now in the state of california and all across the country, schools that serve students of color mostly are ten times more likely to be places of concentrated poverty than the schools that white students went to. but i don't see the berkeley republicans rising up in arms about that inequality. >> and so do you understand what tim wise -- you may not agree with it, but do you understand what he's saying about historically about the history of racism in this country, college admissions? do you get what he's saying? >> certainly. the two points he makes are both valid points. but the first one been why make a sarcastic event? why make something that seems to be making a joke a very serious issue. my response to that, first of all, as you mentioned before, berkeley is a very liberal campus. our student government is sponsoring this phone bank which is taking a position on policy. and it's telling governor brown that berkeley students support this bill. so the reason for the tone of our event, for possible sarcasm of the event is certainly to draw an attention. it's not an original idea. the forum is slightly original. previously over the past 10, 15 years, bake sales have been had on a random day of the week or just to get some controversy started. ours is at the same time and location of this phone bank. it's to make a point we don't have one political view here at berkeley. >> he said what about working towards -- you're not holding a bake sale for socioeconomic issues. you're holding a bake sale about admissions. >> exactly. >> so you want to address that part, as well? >> the reason that we're having a bake sale strictly on race and gender is because that's what the bill does. that's the bill that governor brown is deciding on. it's not affirmative action because it doesn't have a quota system because that's unconstitutional right now. but what governor brown is deciding is whether to let universities consider race in the admissions process. that's why our bake sale is focusing on that issue. >> go ahead, tim. >> it's not really accurate. what the bill would allow would be for governor brown and this is what affirmative action in the post quota era which quotas have been illegal essentially for 25 years or more, would allow him to consider race in the same way that what i'm discussing, if race has played a role in the dispensation of educational access and opportunity. if race has mattered in other words in terms of opportunity, it would allow him to consider that and allow the admissions officers, let's say in the uc system, to consider that when they're examining applications. >> my thanks to tim and sean. the bake sale is scheduled for tuesday and we'll check back on the story for you. make sure you keep it tuned to cnn. the satellite breaks up. a satellite breaks up as it enters the atmosphere scattering debris across the world. that and other top stories straight ahead here. we were so blessed when we had triplets. if by blessed you mean freaked out about money. well, we suddenly noticed that everything was getting more expensive, so we switched to the bargain detergent, but i found myself using three times more than you're supposed to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. 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[ male announcer ] as you wish, business pro. as you wish. go national. go like a pro. now through january earn a free day with every two rentals. find out more at nationalcar.com. this year is the fifth anniversary of cnn heroes and over the years, we have received more than 40,000 nominations from you, our viewers in more than 100 countries. this week we revealed our top ten cnn heroes of 2011. each will receive $50,000 and a shot at cnn hero of the year which will earn one of them an additional $250,000. and you get to decide who that person will be. here's anderson cooper with the top ten cnn heroes of 2011. >> i'm anderson cooper. all year we've been introducing to you everyday people changing the world, cnn heroes. now we anoux the top ten cnn heroes for 2011. the honorees are by first name amy stokes, she uses the internet to match teens lacking role models with adults around the world. bruno serato is serving up a solution so motel kids don't go to bed hungry. derek collects discarded hotel soaps and reprocesses them to save lives. dine latiker opened her door inviting gang members in. eddie kanales helps football players sidelined by spinal cord injuries. elena offers poor children a way out of the trash dump and into school. patrice, diagnosed with incurable cancer started feeding and coaching children from haiti's slums. robin limb helps women have healthy pregnancies. sal pays for rent, food and basic necessities to keep the working poor afloat. and karen davis, who built a sisterhood of american war widows. which one inspires you the most? go to cnn heroes online or your mobile device to vote for your cnn hero of the year. >> thank you. protests and arrests. this wasn't a scene from the middle east today. try wall street. your top stories are next. 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[ gunfire ] >> jesus. >> police were confronted by a gunman approaching a youth football game in a stadium crowded with students and parents. police say the gunman had been menacing and shooting at people with automatic weapons for about half a mile, for about half a mile before police arrived. the 51-year-old gunman was killed. no one else was hurt. new york police arrested about 80 people today as they marched near the new york stock exchange. most were charged with disorderly conduct, but also resisting arrest and in one case, assaulting a police officer. those arrested were part of a demonstration dubbed occupy wall street that began a week ago. demonstrators said they were protesting bank bailouts and the mortgage crisis. a shocking finish in a battle of republican presidential candidates in orlando, florida, this evening. herman cain won the straw poll at the gop's presidency five event. it wasn't even close. cain received 37% of the vote, more than twice as much as rick perry considered by many to be the front-runner in this race. perry received 15% and former massachusetts governor mitt romney was third with 14%. two american hikers are on their way home after being locked up in iran for more than two years. they flew out of oman on saturday and expected to arrive in the u.s. sunday afternoon. iran arrested them for allegedly straying over the border from iraq in july of 2009. they were accused of being spies and sentenced to eight years in prison. the two the were freed wednesday under a million dollar bail deal. nasa says a dead satellite broke part and likely landed in the pacific ocean today far off the u.s. coast. the space agency says it isn't aware of any reports of injury or property damage. but it said 26 satellite components weighing a total of about 1,200 pounds could have survived the fiery re-entry. the upper atmosphere research satellite was launched 20 years ago this month. cnn was recently provided with exclusive access to the journey taken by some members of the u.s. army from the decision to enlist to boot camp to deployment. now the journey comes full circle with upcoming drawdown of u.s. troops from afghanistan. it's part of our ongoing series "a soldier's story in two minutes from now. i'm don lemon in atlanta. see you back here sunday night. 6:00, 7:00, and 10:00 p.m. eastern. good night. ♪ and the flowers and the trees ♪ ♪ all laugh when you walk by ♪ and the neighbors' kids run and hide ♪ deep inside you, there's a person who refuses to be kept deep inside you. ♪ but you're not ♪ you're the one be true to yourself. what's healthier than that? ten years after 9/11, american troops finally are leaving afghanistan. another fallen soldier, a sergeant from north carolina, returns home with honor. >> 700 miles away, a sergeant from california returns. to a wife and two daughters. it is a moment 12 months in the making. >> this is your last time in the states. let's go execute rendezvous with destiny, all right? >> back in august, 2010, more than a full year ago, sergeant randy shorter and his platoon got their marching orders. >> trust your training. trust yourselves, trust your buddy next to you. >> engage the people, turn back the taliban, and turn over the job of fighting them to the afghan forces. the shorter platoon was part of the president's surge of 30,000 additional troops. >> does it feel more real now when you're boarding or when you finally get there? >> now. >> now. >> you look back, once you look back, that's it. >> at the very start of his mission, we spent a week with shorter to see just how he and his men planned to turn the tide of war. >> if you haven't done so, lock and load. it's gametime now. >> now after hundreds of patrols, endless training sessions with afghan troops -- and often contentious meetings with afghan elders, now the time has come to ask, how did they do? pundits and politicians will have their say but it's the troops on the ground who know more than anyone if this war has succeeded. so we went back to afghanistan to talk to them to find out if this is the right moment to pull back. are the afghans ready to take over? and most importantly, has all of this been worth the sacrifice of so many? >> let's go. >> up next, ready or not. americans hand over the fighting to afghan forces. 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[ announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ the enemy knows you're out there, they know you're conducting operations. >> 11 months into his year-long deployment. >> any intel regarding taliban, go ahead and push it up. >> sergeant randy shorter prepares his men for yet another combat mission. >> you mind if i tc? >> after more than 200 missions -- >> oh, yeah. full hour and a half. >> everyone is weary of war. ready to come home. as the drawdown of u.s. troops expands, it will soon be up to the afghans to finish the job. >> the last time we were here, this is an area where we used to meet before leaving on missions. there used to be a police building here, but a few months after we left, it was destroyed by a suicide bomber. many afghan police were killed on that day. this is all that's left at this point. >> you can see the ball bearings from the suicide vest. all over the walls. right now we're just waiting for our after cuban counterparts. what's up, man? how are you? >> here in paktika province in southern afghanistan, shorter's counterpart is sahi, a platoon leader with the aup, the afghan uniformed police. if afghans are to take the lead in this war, it will be up to the aup along with the afghan army. >> i'm glad you're okay, man. >> the day before, sahid's men on patrol with shorter's troops hit a roadside bomb. they were lucky to escape with only minor injuries. >> i thought i lost my friend. i was very worried. >> just 24 hours from now saheed and his fellow policemen face a major test. they're expected to take the lead in a door-to-door search for suspected taliban and weapons in one of the most dangerous villages in their province. >> so we come in one probably go that way, another go that way. >> we're talking about how we're going to clear these compounds that we're getting ready to head into right now. >> we're going to go in with the aup today and they're going to take responsibility there. >> aup? >> the afghan uniformed police. they're going to take the lead in this. they're going to clear the village. >> this is the area we took contact in the last time we came through this route. took like three rpgss or rockets and small arms fire. >> hey, armstrong, come over here. >> sahid. >> going to do it two teams, one, two. >> go, go, go. >> time after time. >> you ready? >> hey, hey, hey. >> -- american soldiers take the lead. not the afghan police. >> hey, tell them knuckleheads to stay together and with the aup. >> shorter's orders are not being followed. >> where did the aup go? >> you guys ready? >> yeah. >> let's go. >> women and children in that room. >> right left. go right left. >> let's go. >> there's children in here. >> control these [ bleep ] and tell them to slow down. from now on, always have [ bleep ]. tell your boys to slow down. >> finally more than an hour after they started. >> mission, let them go in first. let them lead. >> the afghans take the lead. >> how about the kids. >> good job aup. we're clear. >> it's pretty tense. >> oh, yeah. >> it is. trying to get the aup. as you can see there's little rough spots in the beginning but they're coming along. >> the afghan uniform the police to take the lead. sometimes they're a little disoriented. >> i collect up all the mail. >> we're doing the same thing, the fingerprinting? >> yes, that's what they're doing here. they're separating, and the ones from this clot and that clot. >> no weapons showed up in the search. but testing the hands of some of the villagers reveals some of the men may have handled ieds. roadside bombs that have killed so many coalition soldiers. >> so what do you think this means? >> he's definitely handled some sort of residual explosive. >> all four tests turned up positive. >> as you can see, you've got a positive hit, positive hit, positive hit. shoes, clothes, back and top of his hands. you can see that it's all over his hands. >> more likely than not, this guy's been handling some sort of explosive. explosion. >> up next, the hunt for the taliban continues. and another test for afghan security forces. t ! i've got to tell susie ! the vending machine on elm is almost empty. i'm on it, boss. new pony ? sorry ! we are open for business. let's reroute greg to fresno. growing businesses use machine-to-machine technology from verizon wireless. susie ! the vending machine... already filled. cool bike. because the business with the best technology rules. few places on the planet are more remote and isolated than afghanistan. but after ten years of war, some of that is changing. america alone has built or reconstructed more than 1,000 miles of highways and roads. at the same time, the taliban has turned these very same roads into a battlefield. >> you see that right there? that's an ied. >> last year alone, ieds killed more than 250 u.s. troops and injured another 3,400. after a week with sergeant shorter we head further south to meet up with the army's combat engineers, the 36th brigade. it's their job along with their afghan counterparts to find and remove ieds before they do harm. >> captain albert butler is the company commander responsible for keeping an area about the size of alabama safe from roadside bombs. >> the guys that were hit last night were the hit right here. >> in the two weeks before we arrive, his men fought the enemy ten separate times. >> as soon as you leave the fob and you head north, it is game on. that's what where the danger starts. >> left at 05 yesterday. don't get back till 10:00 today. >> how many hours were you gone. >> 29 on a mission. >> they were able to hide those ieds a lot better than i could find them. >> we got hit by one -- i don't know what more i could have done. we swept it, rerolled it, came back up and it went off. >> how many times have you been hit? >> too many. too many times to count. >> but you still keep doing it. >> just keep doing it. engineers, we're stubborn. so we're going to continue to find them. >> is that what it is? >> that's what it is. >> i'm going to 18 bravo today. basic enemy composition is usually three to five guys. that's what we're working with, all right? these guys like to run in small packs, especially for ie dervegss. red con and then we're out. >> great. >> whoo. >> right now, we're heading out on a route-clearing mission. this is where the combat engineers look for those roadside bombs, the ieds. >> worst case scenario, maybe there's pressure plate ieds out here or even a command wire that they've strung all the way out to the village. >> let's keep pushing forward. seven, keep your eyes on it, please. break. >> direct them through here, sir. >> that looks like it. >> kind of hard to see from my perspective. >> we still have a lot of ground to cover. >> yeah. >> 150 kilometers. at least. >> with the adjacent fields clear at least for now, lieutenant nick christian and his afghan counterparts work the highway checkpoint for suspicious vehicles. >> this route right here, this is the main route which we keep it clear from two major cities. kandahar and kabul. we've just heard word that behind us now, you've gotten word there might be something suspicious going on. >> yes, we moved down the road. we came from that direction. we passed maybe a mile, maybe two past the area. then they'll plant in a bomb behind us. >> the afghan national army actually found a suspicious device or something that seems to be suspicious down this way from where we just came. what you're basically saying is theoretically, someone knew we were going to be coming back that direction and planted a bomb so we would hit it on our way back? >> yes, it's very lucky today because now that they found suspicious bomb material behind us, that prevents us from going back over it and getting exploded on. >> there was six jugs of homemade explosives, roughly 300 pounds of explosives. >> just so you know like 300 pounds is like a typical suv, like say a tahoe. breaking into about 2 million pieces and kill everybody inside the vehicle. >> roger. bush whacker seven. >> now with one ied found and neutralized, the combat engineers catch another break. >> we find one vehicle and happened to stop the right one with five personnel that tested positive on bomb making materials. >> this one is military grade plastic explosives. >> we caught the guys that potentially could have [ bleep ] the -- >> search these guys. make sure it's all good to go. >> he's one of them. >> he didn't have an i.d. on him. >> he said he left it at home. >> which is probably [ bleep ]. >> this is the second passport we've pulled of a guy. he had a passport that said the reason for passport was travel in asia, europe and america. and it was the first guy we got. >> not going to america, buddy. sorriable your day. >> where did this come from? >> that guy right there. >> americans don't pay in pakistani, home boy. this is a lot of pakistani to be carrying around. >> these are thousand dollar bills. >> all that pakistani cash persuades the lieutenant to believe the five suspects may have been paid to plant the ied found earlier by afghan troops. >> getting paid for something, it's hard to believe that we found an ied behind us, five guys that came up with explosive residues on their hand and they're walking around with millions in pakistani. >> two million pakistani rupees. >> the first man we spoke to spoke only farsi and the driver spoke pastun only. he said it was his son. usually i know the same language as my father. >> we're going to get some more fingerprints from you. >> all five suspects with fingerprinted. >> sierra, alpha, yankee. >> identified. photographed. >> hands behind your back. >> cuffed and handed over to afghan police for interrogation. >> do you think it was luck or do you think it was just that there are a lot of them out there so it's easier to sort of grab? >> today might have been a lucky day. today might have been a lucky day. >> coming up, sergeant shorter and his platoon bluntly assess the future of afghanistan. along with their fears and hopes of returning home. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. 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>> ten years of war. you know? still no tangible solution. we can sit here and debate all day whether or not the afghans are ready, but you know what? it's about time to put their feet to the fire. we paid a great cost. >> we've all lost somebody over here. and if we think we're pulling out too early, it's almost like those guys gave their life for nothing, you know? >> some people may feel it's dishonoring the memories of people that sacrificed. it's not. you know, because we have made progress. >> i don't mind staying over here till the mission is complete where i know this government and the police and army can take care of it. >> tactically, they're unbelievable. they are aggressive, go getters, their key developmental needs is on a leadership, planning, administrative logistics level. we'll be on missions and say okay, i'll give them the plan. we'll talk about it. they'll ask me questions and okay, you guys good to go? they'll say yeah. can we have some gas. you guys didn't bring any gas? are they ready, are they not ready? at some point we're going to have to leave. a complete drawdown. i totally support it. complete withdrawal of troops, i support it, as well. >> back home in kentucky at ft. campbell, the families wait. >> is it straight? >> at the shorter home, cheryl and daughters melani and ariana ready yet another homecoming. within hours, sergeant shorter returns from his fourth deployment. >> the tears still come streaming through and i mean it's all renewed emotion. but the act of getting everything set does get old because you're doing different things. you're doing the same thing, you're putting a banner up, you're decorating. that part may get old but the emotions behind it, no. >> the other side of the war. the toll on families. >> we have financial issues back home, dealing with divorce, relationship issues. first-time fathers that have never seen their children. >> life goes on without us. and then we go back and there's a lot of changes, you know, it might it be something small like your wife has a different hairstyle. it might be something huge. and it's kind of a shock. it hurts almost. you know? it's like how dare you go on with your life when i was over there fighting. >> uh-huh. >> that's how i felt personally. >> do you remember how you were able to deal with it the first time? >> first time i didn't deal with it too well. >> what does that mean? >> i got pretty good at drinking. >> okay. >> and i held a lot of it in. you know? everything i saw that first tour, everything we went through. >> when i got here, there's things you have to pick up, like you have to wash people's hands because they could have a weapon. so when i went home, like i went to the mall, being around all those people kind of freaked me out because watching everybody's hands and stuff like that, i freaked out. >> i can't expect pity or sympathy from others. you know, yeah i went through what i went through. i've seen what i seen. but i can't fault my family members for that for not understanding. the first time i almost lost my marriage because of that. >> the physical part of coming back home is easy. it's the emotional part. people's personalities change. you know, your wife changes. your kids change. it's a year. they learn new things. and soldiers are still stuck in that same mentality a year ago. >> i take my job very seriously. i enjoy training the men. i enjoy being with them, but at the same time, on the other hand, i have a family. you know? you sacrifice so much. the little things you miss, birthdays, the anniversaries, the graduations. you know? and we deal with it. >> he hurts a lot. he realizes a lot of things that he's missed out on. her getting a permit, i mean the day it happened we were on facebook. you could feel in his words when he would type back, you know, i'm done. i can't do this anymore. she's going to be going off to college in two years. i have two years. and his fear is his daughters will forget him. >> excited. >> excited? >> yes. >> i can't wait to hug him. >> it's been forever. >> tickle him. >> i've only seem him like on webcam or like chatting with him on facebook but now i get to actually see him and give him a big nice hug. >> welcome home, daddy. for arianna's poster and melani. >> mine says we've missed you and at the bottom it has a turtle on it that says no more waiting. bring my daddy home. >> daddy! >> daddy! >> i think this welcome home ceremony is going to be a very emotional one. with the kids there and you know us being able to finally hold him in our arms. ♪ >> i love you. >> where you been all my life? >> as far as honoring the memories of our fallen comrades, how we deal and mourn for them. we honor them. we finish our mission here in afghanistan, allowing the opportunity for the afghans to take over