Taking risks to capture 'the truth'</span><br/><span class='hl2'>Father and son will cover wars in Iraq, Afghanistan for 15 months</span>

Truth through risk.

Mike Boettcher chose that slogan for his news venture knowing the risks he and his son will face over the next 15 months in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Boettcher, 54, a Ponca City native and University of Oklahoma graduate, worked 30 years as a foreign correspondent for NBC and CNN. He has covered revolutions, violence and wars around the world.

Disillusioned with the way the media is covering the Iraq war, Boettcher said he pitched an idea to his bosses at NBC. He would spend 15 months embedded with the troops, telling their stories at the ground level.

They said it was too dangerous, Boettcher said, so he quit and pursued the idea on his own. Boettcher and his son, Carlos Boettcher, 22, are scheduled to leave this month for Baghdad, where they hope to give Americans a better understanding of their military and change the way the media covers war.

A better way

Risk is not a new concept for Mike Boettcher. While covering the Iraq war in 2005, Boettcher was thrown from his hotel bed when two suicide bombers targeted the Baghdad hotel complex where he and other media members were staying.

Still, the risks he faced paled in comparison to the soldiers whose stories he was trying to tell. Boettcher found it difficult to tell the real stories of the soldiers.

"I think you can only do that if you share the same risks,” Boettcher said.

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