A Grunt level view of one weapon that changed the war in Afghanistan.
When the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, the United States launches a covert campaign to arm the Mujahideen and bleed Moscow where it hurts most.
The operation is classified.
The mission is deniable.
The weapon is the FIM-92 Stinger
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As Charlie Wilson and CIA task force chief, Gust Avrakotos, drive the political engine behind Operation Cyclone, Rick Fontain is brought in for the technical fight. A former military operator now working at Bell Labs, Fontain has the one skill set the mission cannot afford to do without: deep knowledge of shoulder-fired missile technology, the STINGER. And he has the 411 on the Soviet aircraft it was built to kill. Reunited with his Redeye instructor Andy Davis, he is tasked with helping turn a covert concept into a battlefield reality.
But the road to victory runs through assassins, KGB counterattacks, Pakistan’s ISI, American Special Forces trainers, and the deadly proving grounds of Afghanistan itself. When the order comes to get the missiles into the hands of the Mujahideen, Fontain is pushed into a war where failure means more than a lost mission—it means handing the Soviets control of the sky and the entire future of the Afghan citizens.
From Ojhri Camp to Bagram, Stinger: Operation Cyclone is a fast-moving Cold War military thriller packed with covert action, authentic weapons detail, geopolitical stakes, and the kind of ground-level realism that puts readers inside Charlie Wilson’s War from the operator’s point of view.
