More than a year ago Portland free-lance journalist Scott Kesterson came to me and asked if Northwest NewsChannel 8 would sponsor his reporting on the war in Afghanistan. The Oregon National Guard was about to send more than a 1,000 troops to the country and agreed to let Scott go along.

I was impressed with Scott's intelligence and dedication. He was also a veteran of the National Guard so he had some military experience that would help him in the assignment. I jumped at the opportunity to have Scott cover the war for kgw.com.

During the past year, Scott has written a regular blog from the front lines in Afghanistan and he has sent back some of the most incredible war video I've ever seen.
Scott Kesterson's Afghanistan Blog

Last summer he was involved in a fire fight between the Taliban and Canadian forces. It was a night-time fire fight and you could see the bullets flying through the black night like slim missiles on fire. It was the most impressive video I've seen all year.
Watch video: Troops ambushed
Watch video: Firefight at dawn with Taliban (graphic language)

Scott has become something of a folk hero with Canadians because of his willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers to capture this raw video of a real battle. It was real reality TV.

While other U.S. journalists covered the war for a few days or a couple weeks at most, Scott was on the ground for more than a year. Unbelievably, he was the only American journalist embedded full time with U.S. forces. Talk about the forgotten war.

Scott went places and saw things that only the soldiers on the ground have seen. He worked along side the soldiers, lived under the same conditions and took the same risks. He got to know the soldiers personally and he got to love the Afghan people.

Scott tells me he was the first on-line journalist ever embedded with the U.S. military. He demonstrated the power of the internet and this new form of journalism called blogging.

For the past year I have worried about Scott's safety and ended every email exchange with the words: Be safe. This week Scott walked back into the station, tanned and rested after arriving back in the states last week. I breathed a sigh of relief just to see him. Over lunch this week I sat glued to every word as Scott told me about his experiences.

Now we want to put a voice and a face to all those wonderful blogs from the front. Yesterday, NewsChannel 8 reporter Pat Dooris sat down with Scott for an extensive interview. The first of Pat's stories about Scott's experiences will run Friday night, May 18, at 11 p.m. Please watch. You won't want to miss this spellbinding story. - Rod Gramer, Executive News Director