Just in case you are getting too comfortable on your nice Oklahoma patio during our nice spring evening in beautiful Oklahoma in early June, here’s a little dose of Afghan reality.

It’s on the “On the Line” blog on NewsOK.com – powered by Mike and Carlos Boettcher, who are embedded with soldiers in Afghanistan.

Mike has been posting on his Twitter account. Today, he posted another eye-opening bit of info:

Was interviewing a bronze star winner, a fellow Oklahoman, when we got small arms fire. He had to throw down the mike and shoot back.

I guess my day wasn’t so tough, after all.

I’ve written about the “On the Line” project before – where Mike Boettcher and Carlos Boettcher are risking their lives on the front lines in Afghanistan to tell the real stories of our soldiers serving our country.

But things are heating up now.  I know because those are the exact words from Mike, the longtime war correspondent, in the email I received. He told me that he and his son are not on the front lines, and they saw something that needed fixed on the blog that we are hosting for them.

Things heating up here. I just fed a video of artillery firing at insurgent positions.

That e-mail woke me up …. just as I was eating my bagle sandwich in my comfy office.

Yes, Mike, I thought, we’ll get that fixed. That’s the least we could do. I’ll get someone to look at that as soon as I set down my sandwich as a group of soldiers fire artillery a half a world away at insurgents who would probably like to kill me and my family.

Thanks for putting things in perspective and keeping everyone informed about what’s happening on the other side of the world.

Here’s the video:

And here is a link to my previous blog post about the project.

We lauched a new blog aimed at telling our soldiers’ stories from their eyes.

It’s called “On the Line,” and it features longtime war correspondent Mike Boettcher and his son Carlos Boettcher as they are embedded with U.S. service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Their story was featured on the front page of The Oklahoman on Sunday and on NewsOK.com. A video interview with Mike and reporter Bryan Dean can be found here:

But the real meat of the package will be found on the blog itself – which Mike and Carlos have begun to feed in recent weeks.

Mike and Carlos are working independently of corporate media. They aren’t reporting from safe zones and telling the stories that our government wants us to report. They are embedded with the young people serving our country, allowing them to tell their stories from their points of view.

And no – they don’t have to be doing this. Mike and Carlos are essentially risking their lives so they can share the lives of the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Why is NewsOK.com involved?After all, we are corporate media, right?

Simply put – the Boettchers needed a platform for their efforts.  They wanted to be able to post blogs, videos and photos in an unfiltered way.

So we worked with Mike on a design and showed him how to blog. The rest is left to the journalists in the field – in this case, half a world away.

The Boettchers do not work for NewsOK.com – this is pure journalism at its base. Mike explains his mission and his motivation in his first blog post, titled “The Arrival.”

We invite NewsOK users to follow Mike and Carlos on their journey into war from the comforts of our offices, cubicles and living rooms.

We’re proud to be involved with this worthy effort.