>> tonight, more than two weeks after disappearing in afghanistan, a u.s. soldier appears as a captive on a taliban video. >> i am russ mitchell, also tonight, golfer tom watson loses the british open but he is still a winner for those who believe you are never too old. >> absolutely beautiful. >> on the eve of the moon landing, a talk with a nasa controller who gave the green light. >> and remembering walter cronkite, through the words of the colleagues who knew him best. >> walter smiled after the evening news if he did kind of an amusing piece, i mean it just made your day. >> this is captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with russ mitchell. >> and good evening, the pentagon now confirms a u.s. soldier missing for weeks in afghanistan has been captured by the taliban, the soldier bowe bergdahl is from ketchum, idaho and seen last night in a taliban video posted on-line. tonight, u.s. military is condemning the release of the video as the soldier's family praise for his safe return. >> correspondent man difficult clark has the latest. >> from i'd doe. >> in the video 23-year-old private first class bowe bergdahl appears in good health, questioned in english by his captors he says she being treated like a guest but in the 28 minutes of footage he often looks downcast and says he is afraid. >> scared i won't be able to go home. it is very unnerving to be a prisoner. >> the u.s. military has reacted angrily to the release of the video. >> we are very unhappy with exploitation, public exploitation of a prisoner, and the humiliation that goes with that, that is a violation of international law. >> reporter: while the taliban has claimed responsibility for the abduction, there is still unclear how the soldier went missing last month. the u.s. military says the incident is still under investigation. >> in the video, private berg dahl says he was lagging behind the patrol and after more than two weeks in captivity, he becomes emotional talking about his family. >> i am a very, very good family that i love back home in america. and i miss them every day when i am gone i miss them, and i am afraid i might never see them again. > >> reporter: back home in a written statement his father says he hopes and praise for his son's safe return. >> reporter: the u.s. military says it is doing everything it can to get the soldier back safely but insists there will be no negotiating with terrorists. man difficult clark, cbs news, kabul. >> authorities in san francisco are investigating the country's latest mass transit accident. a collision between two light rail trains in the city's westport tall district. ben tracy tells us what happened. >> reporter: some witnesses say it sounded like a bomb went off, two san francisco light rail trains collided saturday afternoon sending 48 people to the hospital, at least four with severe injuries, including the operator of one of the trains. >> they need to have this area cleared so paramedics and the injured can get through. >> reporter: the san francisco municipal train rea rear ended e train at 2:00 in the afternoon both packed with saturday shoppers. >> i had to spend hours away, inside, it was frightening. >> rescue workers treated some of the wounded on the scene, but there were so many they brought in a public bus to transport the rest to the hospital. >> most of the people on board this bus was the one that was able to walk right now. >> reporter: the ntsb is investigating the cause of the crash and will consider both mechanical and human causes. >> the driver's head is down and looked like he was asleep or couldn't tell but he was not looking up, he was not slowing down or braking or no signals, nothing and you could tell he was going to collide. >> this is the fourth major transit crash in the last year, in washington, d.c. last month nine people were killed when a metro rail train collided with a stationery one. >> in boston 50 people were injured when a subway operator who was texting plowed into another. and last september in southern california, 25 people were killed when a commuter train slammed into an oncoming freight train. >> ben tracy, cbs news, los angeles. >> there is mystery tonight concerning a terrorism trial of an american citizen that gets underway tomorrow in the united arab emirates he could face the death penalty but the attorneys claim he has been prosecuted at the behest of the united states. michelle miller has that story. >> reporter: he is a father of three who obtained american citizenship after graduating from college and starting a successful auto parts business in california. now he awaits trial in the united arab emirates as an alleged terrorist based on a confession he says he made only after weeks of torture. >> he was forced to eat dirt. >> the 40-year-old us in limb american says he was blindfolded when he signed the statement his captors had written for him. >> he had no idea what he was signing and really what he was confessing to. what he did know was that he just wanted the torture to end. >> adding to the mystery the uae charges against him are vague. he is accused of supporting terrorism, and participating in a terrorist group. but the uae hasn't said what group or what he allegedly did to help. >> reporter: the uae embassy in washington says it would not be appropriate to comment on the case. his attorneys from the aclu claim the u.s. was behind his arrest calling it proxy detention. >> after a foiled plot to bomb la's airport in 1999 and then 9/11, he was questioned by fbi counter terrorism agents, but never arrested. he moved his appeal to the uae 3 years ago. >> the real danger here is that because there isn't any evidence to charge him in u.s. courts someone decided just to have the uae do it for us. >> reporter: but the fbi says at no time did it request the uae detain or arrest him. the cia declined to comment. but in his former hometown of hawthorne, california, his friends are speaking out. he is known him for 20 years. >> naji never, ever, and i personally square that he never, ever got involved in any activity or there is any sign he is related to any terrorist activity. >> reporter: once president of their local mosque says he was very religious, but not radical and is appealing to the, s government to enter seen. >> state department on voiz have visited ham dan in prison but not saying if they are trying to help him or if he is guilty. >> obviously we are aware of it and we are watching carefully. >> the if you leave america's stores and go abroad our government can't get you there and no one can protect you. >> his trial in the uae is before a judge and may last only one day. if convicted the attorneys say he faces life in prison or even the death penalty. michelle miller, cbs news, new york. >> changing directions now, there is news this evening of an almost historic moment from the world of sports. only one short putt stood between tom watson and golf history he was on the verge of becoming the oldest winner of a major championship. tony has more on a performance that inspired older golfers everywhere. >> reporter: at 59, tom watson was supposed to be too old for this, yet with a birdie on the 71st hold of the british open watson was young again. [ applause ] >> reporter: ready to write one of the greatest stories in the history of sports. weekend golfers everywhere rejoiced. >> thrilled that he is doing as well as he is because he is a year older than me. >> reporter: they have been playing golf in the bronx since 1895, it is the oldest public course in the country. even duffers here have a respect for the game that borders on reverence when they talk about what an aging champion is doing across the pond. >> i would say it is tremendous skill, character, determination, and it is truly inspiring and motivating for every golfer. >> reporter: paul, the pro here says watson turned here with an almost in comprehensivable marriage of golfer and course. >> he is probably the greatest links player of all-time and on a links course you have to hit so many different shots and then accept the outcome. >> reporter: five times before the outcome for what son was the claret judge, 77 at turn bury, 1980, mir field, 82 at truene, his fifth championship at royal burke dale. >> 26 years later on this sunday afternoon, watson stood over an eight-foot putt on the final hole that would seal the unimaginable. for the first time all week watson showed his 59-year-old nerves. >> was he, in fact, too old for this? >> even if he doesn't win it is still an incredible achievement. >> reporter: weekend golfers will never hit shots like watson but they know greatness when they see it. tony, cbs news from the bronx, new york. >> and coming up on tonight's cbs evening news, the one small step for n, depends on one young nasa's employees decision. >> mitchell: obama will host visitors from out of space t3 apollo 11 astronauts to marked the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the moon. of course hundreds of thousands of workers helped get them there including one whose quick thinking helped make history. randal pinkston has his story. >> houston we see you. >> as apollo 11 descend to the moon, he was at nasa's mission control in houston, the guidance officer for the historic flight, he was just 26 years old. >> i thought if there was going to be a problem, it would happen before we ever started the landing. >> reporter: but there had not been any major problems since liftoff three days earlier, and the lunar module called eagle with astronauts ne neal armstrog and was above its destination. >> everything was perfect and i was real excited and i said this is it. >> suddenly five minutes into the descent with the eagle at 6,000 feet an alarm went off. >> armstrong alerted mission control a 1202 alarm, even the astronauts didn't know what that meant. >> 1202, what is that. >> in mission control, flight director dean krantz turned to bail for an immediate answer. >> keyed alarm meant it wasn't finishing all of its task it was assigned to do that minute. >> the eagle computer system was overloaded which could cause the navigation system to fail and a possible aborted moon landing. >> we are fine. >> to bales, everything else looked good, the eagle's altitude, its speed. >> i took 15 seconds to make up my mind, that is an eternity. >> reporter: with the whole world watching, waiting foreman's first touchdown in another world, whether to continue or not at that crucial moment was up to bales. >> do you remember how you were feeling at that moment. >> i was scared to death, absolutely scared to death. >> then bales spoke up. >> we are going. >> flight, we are going that alarm. >> radar, flight, looks good, 2,000 feet. >> the descent continued, eagle dropped to 2000 feet. >> we have another 1202 alarm. >> but computer alarm went off six for time, each time he gave the green light. >> we are going to go for landing, retro. >> go. >> what were the variables you were considering when you were trying to go or no go. >> we have been trained not to sit there and think about things like you can mess this up. we were trained to think about how can you make it work? >> down two and a half. picking up some dust. >> with less than a minute of fuel left, eagle made its final approach. >> the eagle has landed. >> and i was just relieved. >> we are there. >> while the world watched in awe. >> the following month when richard nixon presented the three apollo astronauts with medals of freedom he gave out a fourth to steve bales as a representative of every one at mission control. >> this is the young man, when the computers seemed to be confused and when he could have said stop or when he could have said wait said go. [ applause ] >> really, it was a technological miracle that we could do that, in 1969. >> bales stayed with nasa for 27 more years, and now sells chemicals, an earth bound job for man who helped open a new frontier in space. randal pinkston, cbs news, new jersey. >> mitchell: and next up on tonight's cbs evening news, we will hear what it wae ik lto workthwi walter cronkite. >> mitchell: former cbs news anchorman walter cronkite have been pouring in all weekend, some of those heartfelt can come from those who worked beside him. and here are just a few. >> i was totally terrified of walter cronkite. i was in my mid 20s, i was new to cbs. >> it was demanding but he was accessible. he was likable. and because of that you wanted to please him. >> this guy was a god. he was the it journalist on television, and my whole thought was just don't screw it up. >> i was the first woman producer on the broadcast, and he was extremely welcoming, as long as you delivered the goods he didn't care what you were. walter called the washington bureau after the evening news for bob schieffer or roger mud, i mean, people were nervous, people got scared. >> there were things known as ww's, walter wants and you had to go get those quick. >> walter want was very simple, one, i want to know x or, two, you have got this fact but prove to me that it is correct. >> if walter wanted a story he got it, it was going to be done on his timetable and it was going to be done to his exacting specifications. >> what i learned from walter cronkite that i still live with today is his sense of competitiveness. walter did not like to get beat on anything. >> he didn't like losing on the tennis court anymore than he liked losing on a news story. >> a few weeks after i was there we were beaten on a story and uncle walter walked into the fishbowl and ripped up apart. how could we miss it? how did we get it wrong? and furthermore, we are going to get it right for the next feed. >> i did see him explode one night after a broadcast when there had been a question about whether we had gotten something right about president nixon, and he just yelled, we had better get this right. >> before a time of anchors and enter rajons and celebrity, he was the real deal. >> he loved to chat when you come back to a story and he wanted to know more than what you had been able to put into a minute and a half or a two minute piece, and i once talked with one of his executive producers about that, rolled his eyes and smiled and he said, well don't you know about walter? i said what is there to know? he said, walter is the world's greatest. >> walter never traveled with any money, it seems like, so if you took a cab with walter, you ended up paying for that taxi. >> i had been at cbs six or seven years when my father died and i was in the washington bureau, and walter was in the bureau shortly after i had come back to work, and he came up to me and he squeezed my shoulder and he said, i want to offer you my deepest sympathy, michael. >> well, i was pleased but somewhat taken aback and i said thank you and a minute later i turned to a colleague and i said, how am i to take that? he said, i think you have to change your name. >> walter kind of smiled after the evening news if you did kind of an amusing piece. i mean it just made your day. he just made your day. >> you knew that he was talking to something like 20 million people a night, but he always spoke to you like you were a human being, even as a 24-year-old, i was allowed to call him walter, everybody called him walter. el mchndit awil:e e w bll back. í@ we choose to go to the moon. we choose to go to the moon. >> we choose to go to the moon and do the other things. not because they are easy but because they are hard. >> mitchell: finally this evening a few more walter cronkite memories. a most exact almost exactly nine years ago i had the honor of interviewing walter on the 50th anniversary of the start of his cbs news career. >> can you believe it has been 50 years since you joined cbs? >> almost impossible:it seems like almost yesterday. >> walter cronkite reporting march 15th. >> from day one he was creating broadcast news as we now know it. in fact, the word anchorman was coined for walter cronkite. >> it was very primitive. i did not write a script for the broadcast in those days at all. >> really? >> i had a blackmon for, a big monitor up there, a television set, and there would be ten in the gate to count down the seconds, ten, nine, eight and time it so i hit the film on time. >> but in those early days, things didn't always work out. as planned. >> we have just had, i have been advised some film in from the defense department and here it is. this is the explorer as it is being moved to the gap tri, unfortunately the film seems to be upside down. there is our film now of the freptions right side up. >> mitchell: in a time before the internet and instant news, walter cronkite brought the world's triumphs and tragedies into our living rooms every night. >> one of my first memories in life is november 22nd, 1963, when you announced that president kennedy had died, of all the stories you covered, of all the stories you reported did that one affect you the most? >> yes. that particular emotion of deep sadness, yes, very definitely. there were other stories that i was pleased with, where the emotion was uh just the opposite, the bright emotion, man landing on the moon successfully, but certainly, as far as the being deeply touched by a major tragedy, that was it. >> mitchell: i hope this is a fair question but what are you most proud of your 50 years at cbs? >> oh, i think probably holding on to my integrity and programs passing on a little of that feeling about journalistic standards on to the others as it came with me and then after me. >> mitchell: do you have any advice for those of us who would like to? day celebrate our 50th anniversary at cbs news? >> hang in there. hang in there. >> mitchell: as you can see by the almost constant smile on my face it was a magical day for me, mr. cronkite was a true gentleman. and that is the cbs evening news. a reminder you can watch the cbs news special that's the way it was, remembering walter cronkite tonight at 7:00, 6:00 central, thanks for joining us this stunned evening, i am russ mitchell, cbs news in new york, indicate at this ikatie is here. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh cbs news is very good nice.