williams. good evening. it is among the scariest threats our nation has faced since 9/11. and after the beheading of a second american now by isis, for all those who may be wondering if the u.s. is going to rise up, take the bait and get into the fight to root them out, the answer today from both the president and vice president appeared to be clear and unambiguous. >> we will not be intimidated. their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists and those who make the mistake of harming americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served. >> as a nation we're united. and when people harm americans, we don't retreat. we don't forget. we take care of those who are grieving. and when that's finished, they should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. >> the vice president today at the portsmouth naval shipyard. the president before that in astonia. and as the u.s. decides go after isis, isis continues to attract and recruit members. just today the u.s. secretary of defense said upwards of a hundred americans are believed to be fighting for isis in the middle east. and tonight in an nbc news exclusive richard engel's been able to find one of those americans. richard's with us tonight from the syrian border in turkey. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. we've reported americans have tried to join isis, but we haven't been able to hear directly from one of them until now. isis militants are brutal killers whose victims include americans. yet there are americans, an unknown number, who are isis recruits including donald morgan. >> my islamic name abdul raheem. >> reporter: what attracted him to isis? >> someone has to defend islam. and somebody has to defend innocent muslims. >> reporter: nbc news interviewed morgan in beirut through a freelance journalist. he didn't hide his intention to join isis, which calls itself the islamic state. >> i purchased the ticket with the intent of entering the syria after joining up with medical and food aid convoys and directly with the islamic state. >> reporter: don morgan now 44 was educated at a military academy. he was a member of the national guard. a deputy sheriff. a bodybuilder. raised catholic in salisbury, north carolina. this is the house where don morgan lived, at the end of a quiet street in a middle class neighborhood. and the question on the minds of his co-workers and neighbors is why would someone want to leave suburban north carolina to join the vicious fight in syria? >> this guy is from small town, salisbury, north carolina, he's not from the middle east. he's not from a messed up family situation. he's a hometown guy. >> reporter: brian beaver has known morgan for 15 years. do you think he was dangerous toward the end? >> i can see him being dangerous. i can. >> reporter: morgan had been in trouble with the law and served time on gun charges. colleagues and law enforcement officials describe an angry man struggling to fit in and finding a cause in radical islam. >> this is it. this is the path. this is the way you're going to go. >> reporter: morgan says the change came two years ago. spending hours on the internet following the wars in the middle east, he got sucked in and started tweeting radical messages under an arabic pseudonym. >> a push came from being mistreated by people around me who didn't share the views i had. >> reporter: he decided to join isis last june and began to make his way from beirut to syria. but he was stopped on the way by authorities in turkey and sent back. soon after our interview, running low on money, morgan returned to the u.s. knowing the risk. >> i think there's a strong possibility that they'll charge me with supporting terrorist organizations and participating in terrorist activities. >> reporter: but does he think he's participating in terrorist activities? >> based on the definition, yes. >> reporter: when morgan returned to the u.s. last month he was arrested, but not for terrorism. he's accused of trying to sell a firearm online, which as a convicted felon he's not allowed to own. he remains in custody. he's pleaded not guilty. morgan himself says he's not a terrorist and does not pose a threat to the united states. others don't agree. >> richard engel starting us off tonight from the syrian border with turkey. richard, thanks. president obama is about to embark on a nato meeting in wales. these gatherings haven't always been considered vitally important. in fact, just a few years back one former u.s. defense secretary brought crossword puzzles to pass the time. but with trouble around the world, with the isis threat, this gathering of nato has an urgency more of the cold war era. chris jansing is there and traveling with the president. chris, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. what a contrast at the last nato meeting the talk was about winding down the war in afghanistan. now it's about gearing up on two critical fronts. the first is isis and the threat that some of those foreign fighters bring both to europe and the united states should they come back and mount attacks on the homeland. it's not officially an agenda item, but there are expected to be a lot of side talks about it including at a meeting tomorrow morning between president obama and british prime minister david cameron. the president wants to form a coalition even as there's mounting pressure at home to take action swiftly. the president also looking for support to form a coalition, what to do about vladimir putin. he's just come from the baltics. interesting given one of the original reasons for nato was to fight russian aggression. there have been 17 of these nato summits since the fall of the berlin wall, brian, this one shaping up with these two major issues around the world to be the most consequential yet. >> chris jansing covering this nato meeting in cardiff, wales. thanks. the ebola fight. just today the deaths officially topped 1900. it's still spreading faster than the effort to stop it. and an american missionary is speaking for the first time about her battle with the disease as we learn more about another american doctor who's been infected. we've got the story tonight from our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: 51-year-old doctor rick sacra from worcester, massachusetts, volunteered to go to liberia a month ago when he heard his colleagues nancy writebol and dr. kent brantly contracted ebola and were being evacuated. ironically he was not treating ebola patients when he became infected. he was working in the maternity ward. >> here's a doctor bringing new life into liberia as death is surrounding us. >> reporter: today, nancy writebol spoke to the public for the first time, two weeks after quietly leaving emory university hospital. >> there were many mornings i woke up and thought, i'm alive. >> reporter: in liberia, writebol had been working long hours cleaning protective suits for doctors and nurses. after developing a fever, she told matt lauer, her husband, david, broke the news to her, she was infected. >> i was laying down and david went to hug me and to put his arms around me. and i knew how dangerous that was. and i just said, dave, just don't. >> how bad did it get for you? how sick did you get? >> well, the night i was evacuated and when they put me on the airplane, i was bad. and when i said good-bye to david, i was not sure that i would ever see him again. >> reporter: now home and getting stronger, both writebol and dr. brantly say they want the world to do more to help the people of west africa. >> i hope that my survival can help more people in africa survive by motivating international community to take action. >> action that now includes dealing with another crisis, starvation. food supplies are not reaching people in isolation. and this situation is growing more dire by the day, brian. >> nancy, thank you for that. we want to let the folks watching know we'll get much more from these american survivors of this ebola outbreak in an nbc news primetime special we are calling "saving dr. brantly." that's friday night at 10:00, 9:00 central. in this country, a major drugstore chain has become the first to make a big change. cvs has stopped selling cigarettes and other tobacco products today saying it will be good for business as it focuses on the health of its customers. we get details tonight from our national correspondent kate snow. >> of course we're all going to die some day. but do we have to pay for it? >> reporter: in the movie "clerks," easy access to cigarettes was the butt of a joke. but cvs is the first big retailer to turn those tobacco customers away. and their pr team is playing it up with a 50-foot cigarette in new york city park today being constantly snuffed out. >> we looked in the mirror and ask the hard questions and we're proud to say we're the first national pharmacy chain to take that step. somebody had to be the first, and we're proud it was us. >> reporter: the move was hailed by the obama administration, the first lady tweeting "thank you cvs health," but there's more to the decision than health concerns. >> this is really a business decision for them. they re-branded themselves with cvs health because they want to be seen as a big health player. and they are a very big health player. it's not just their drugstores, they are also the nation's largest pharmacy benefit manager. >> reporter: yes, there are some frustrated customers. >> i think it's a big inconvenience. because, you know, it's like a one-stop shop. >> reporter: but with tobacco sales plummeting over the past 30 years, cvs is gambling customers will come any way. many anti-smoking activists hopes the move encourages other stores to quit the tobacco habit too. but tonight at the other big chains, cigarettes still filled the shelves. kate snow, nbc news, new york. one more health news item here. we've all seen the commercials here and elsewhere. and while they will likely continue, the fda says there's little evidence that testosterone boosting drugs taken by millions of american men are actually effective. but they add there's no real evidence to say they pose a serious risk either. the condition has been marketed as low "t" and the medications are offered to help with low sex drive and fatigue among some men. still ahead for us tonight, in an emergency, lights and sirens when seconds count. tonight, why so many drivers don't move out of the way. and later, a big surprise from one of the biggest names in music. tim mcgraw changing lives for american veterans and their families. perhaps this has happened to you, you're driving in your car, which is so quiet it serves as a sanctuary from the modern world where you can play music or talk on the phone as you see fit when suddenly in the rearview mirror you see strobe lights and you realize the siren you hear is aimed at you and first responders are trying to get through. it's right at this point where so many otherwise level-headed drivers often freeze or have no earthly idea what to do. it's part of a big problem involving first responders getting where they need to go. we get our report tonight from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: the bystander who called 911 last may -- >> he's shaking. his body is shaking. >> reporter: was already doing cpr on michael lui who collapsed in full cardiac arrest while jogging. paramedics call it a priority one call. >> what are you going to now? >> reporter: a patient's chances of surviving drop 10% with every minute that passes. >> he's not moving. >> reporter: which is why we were so surprised to see drivers who simply wouldn't move over for emergency vehicles. >> well, the red truck wouldn't move because they didn't want to have to go the wrong way. >> reporter: failing to yield can be dangerous. nationwide in 2012, 60 people died in accidents involving emergency vehicles. >> they just don't see it. and they don't hear it. >> reporter: sometimes until the sirens are just 20 feet away. today's modern cars are so soundproof with the radio on, i didn't hear this fire engine until he's right on my bumper. and drivers panic, not sure if they should go through a red light to make room. no say firefighters. >> you should not risk your own safety by pulling out into particularly a blind intersection. >> reporter: in most states the law requires you to signal, yield by pulling to the right or the nearest curb and then stop. but be ware, once one unit passes, another could be following right behind. because nationwide modern ems and fire fighting tactics require many more units on the initial response. back in maryland, michael lui celebrated his 32nd birthday last week with firefighters and the woman who saved him. if the medics had been delayed, what would have happened? >> i would have died. if they had been any later in getting there, i wouldn't have made it. >> reporter: but because the system worked, a little boy named nathan has his dad back. tom costello, nbc news, gaithersburg, maryland. brother another break for us. another mystery solved at what appears to be one of the most mysterious places on the planet. appears to be one of the most mysterious places on the planet. the nation has lost a recipient of the medal of honor. air force pilot bernard fisher awarded the medal by president johnson after his daring rescue of a fellow airman during the vietnam war. he landed his crop plane in south vietnam while under intense enemy fire, as he put it, you just can't leave a guy there. when he later landed safely back at his air base, they found 19 bullet holes in his plane. colonel bernie fisher served in world war ii and korea and vietnam. he was 87. his death now leaves 78 living recipients of the medal of honor. a big surge in auto sales late this summer we've learned, chrysler, nissan, toyota, all reporting big increases last month compared with a year ago. ford up slightly, gm down a bit, chrysler up a full 20% fueled by a 49% jump in jeep sales. and we remain a truck nation. last month again three of the four top sellers were pickups. ford f-150, chevy silverado and dodge ram. it's electronic season when the new devices come out and we learn what we're using is obsolete. because some people devote their lives to such things, there are already people in line at some apple stores just based on the widely reported rumor that the new iphone is coming out a week from now. not to be outdone, samsung is coming out with a new fleet of electronics including an ultra hd screen that is curved and continues around the edge of the device. there is news tonight from stonehenge. while it remains the largest henge in the world, it's also an ancient mystery. was it originally built in a perfect circle? scientists and archaeologist have studied that question for years. and now an exceptionally dry summer from the british countryside may have provided the answer. from the air there are spots visible in the dry grass that appear to show that yes, indeed, the original placement of the rocks appears to have been in a circular formation. the grass is green in spots because they do water it in the summer. but from the upper right of this photo, and because their hose doesn't reach to the other side, a lucky break. the dried grass has revealed the holes where the first stones once stood. up next here tonight, a big star making a big difference for returning veterans and their families. finally tonight, one of the biggest names in country music is behind a good deed. a life-changer actually. for the men and women who have volunteered to serve our country asking for so little in return. tim mcgraw and his wife, faith hill, are among the first families in the modern country era. and mcgraw has decided to make a difference for american vets by providing a home. the story tonight from nbc's cynthia mcfadden. ♪ >> reporter: after 50 top ten hits and 20 years in the fast lane, tim mcgraw says his new single is about what matters most to him, a place to call home. >> it's just a thing about going somewhere that makes you feel good. some stability and anchor in your life. that's what home is. >> reporter: the boy who grew up poor in louisiana today calls this ranch outside nashville home. but it's been a long bumpy road. someone asks you what your life had been like if you hadn't met faith hill? >> i probably wouldn't have a life. i'd probably be gone for sure. >> reporter: mcgraw says it's now time for him to make a difference in other people's lives, turning the spotlight on vets returning from iraq and afghanistan who need a place to live. >> it doesn't matter, you know, what side of the fence you fall on, what your politics are. what matters is these guys go out and take care of our butts. >> reporter: bj frazier is one of those guys. he served for eight years in the u.s. army, both in afghanistan and then iraq. while his high school sweetheart, brooke, raised their two small children. so you're putting your life at risk. you're not making a fortune. >> no, ma'am. >> reporter: there's not enough money to put a down payment on a house. >> no, ma'am. >> reporter: you move in with your mother. >> yes. >> reporter: how much space? >> one small guest bedroom and we all packed into that one room. >> reporter: and that's when tim mcgraw and operation home front came to the rescue. as they have for 99 other vets providing mortgage-free homes, teaming up with chase bank to give the families two years to prove they can handle the responsibilities of home ownership. then they get the house free and clear. >> they don't expect it. they don't think they deserve it. and the thing i try to tell them is you deserve everything good that comes to you in life. >> we got a call the day after christmas. we thought it was going to be bad news or something, you know? but she got on the phone and said, do you guys still want the house? and we said, well yeah, and she said good because we've chosen you. it's yours. >> reporter: was there screaming? >> oh, yeah. screaming, tears. >> yep. >> reporter: the folks at operation home front invited the fraziers to mcgraw's dallas concert. they had no idea they'd become a part of it. >> and tonight i'm proud to say through operation home front and chase we've given away our 100th home to a veteran. u.s. army sergeant bj frazier, in the house tonight. he's got a brand new home because of his service. he's right here. if you see him, shake his hand. >> it's great how much this has taken a weight off my shoulders. i'll go home and go, i'm going to my house. my house. watching my kids play in the backyard. this is my house. this is my house. awesome. >> reporter: one country star making a difference for those who fought to protect this country. cynthia mcfadden, nbc news, dallas. >> expressing the thanks of a grateful nation to all our veterans and active duty military. that is our broadcast for a wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. of course we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. nbc bay area news starts now. right now at 6:00, seeking some difficult solutions. san jose city leaders trying to solve one of the city's biggest problems. thanks for being with us. i'm raj mathai. >> and i'm jessica aguirre. and we start with a story you'll see only here, jungle talk. san jose is trying to figure out what to do with the jungle, one of the largest homeless encampments. it's not far from the famed happy hollow zoo. officials are meeting right now, privately to address accusations that the city is trying to shut down the jungle by cutting off aid. robert honda joins us live from city hall with what he's learned. >> reporter: there is activity going on that is certainly feeding that fear. we were at the jungle and captured images of the homeless, and homeless groups have been concerned about. when san jose announced last year it would set up boulders and a gate at the top of the jungle, some thought it was the start of a city shut down, so when the boulders arrived, keith got worried. >> they're going to stop the churches from coming in here, trying to starve us out. >> reporter: the ministry delivers supplies to the jungle and is part of the meeting going on inside city hall. >> it sends the wrong message. because the peo