War is always a dangerous thing to document and only the bravest of journalists will do what it takes to document the sacrifice, camaraderie, and dangers that soldiers face. What these journalists have delivered are some of the most gripping and authentic stories of war that war movies fail to show. In recent years these documentaries have been winning awards for telling the true story of the troops in the frontlines. The Hornet's Nest is the latest of these documentaries and perhaps the most gripping one.

The Hornet's Nest may perhaps belong to one of the best Afghan War documentaries. The trailer itself already accomplishes in putting the viewer in the middle of the story that the Father and Son team of Mike and Carlos Boettcher have put together. Mike Boettcher is a veteran journalist with a Peabody and Emmy Awards under his belt, and has been covering war for 30 years for the likes of CNN and NBC (and right now works for ABC News) and he always embeds himself amongst the troops, living like them, and ready to die with them just to get the story right. His son Carlos, who grew up always missing his dad in important moments of his life, decides to go with him and cover the Afghan War. This complicates things for Mike as he covers the No Slack Battalion of the 101st Airborne when they conducted Strong Eagle III in March 2011 where they lost 6 soldiers in the 9 days as they cleared the Kunar region of  the Taliban. Apart from his own safety, Mike also has to worry about his son's.

What a way for a father and son bonding, being under fire from people determined to kill American troops.

With their handheld and helmet mounted cameras, Mike and Carlos readily followed the troops wherever they went, getting a first person view of firefights, and close encounters with death. Operation Strong Eagle III was a dangerous mission as the soldiers will be going in a mountain region with a steeper terrain than they originally thought, and where they can be isolated quickly if they lose their helicopter support. A full text report with videos of Operation Strong Eagle III at ABC News.

Mike and Carlos were also embedded with the 2/8 Marines in Hellman River Valley

The Hornet's Nest will be released to theaters in May 2014 after doing rounds in community screenings in 2013, and an exclusive screening in New York yesterday as a pre-Super Bowl feature that will be attended by NFL players, general, coaches, celebrities and gold star families.  This documentary will also be "inducted into the Army Hall of Fame and Museum at Fort Benning as a piece of National History" according to the press release on the pre-Super Bowl Screening.

Below is a video from Air Force Times discussing the documentary and the experiences of the Mike Boettcher as a war correspondent: