Stinger Saga (Four Stars)

This excellent book focuses on the collaboration between Pakistan's ISI and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency efforts to provide the Mujideen with a means to counter Soviet airpower during communist rule in Afghanistan. This fascinating book looks at the training the Pakistanis received in the United States, the training mission for the freedom fighters and the employment of the weapons in Afghanistan.

The thing I liked best about this book is that the Stinger is neither treated as the "infallible" air defense weapon in the hands of the Mujideen, nor as an adjunct to overall story of Afghanistan's anticommunist insurgency. Rather, it provides information about the weapon's role in the long war there, the tactics employed by the insurgents when using it and the effectiveness of the weapon as compared to other antiaircraft systems available to the Mujideen. Mr. Mahmoud Ahmed is the perfect person to tell this story since he oversaw the training of the Afghans on the Stinger. This is a man who knows the difference between the gripstock and the missile.

Stinger Saga also looks at the effort made after the Soviet-Afghan War to recover the MANPADS used by the insurgents. Mahmoud's insights are most interesting, as well as his perceptions of the CIA.

I was trained on Stinger less than two years before Mr. Mahmoud was shown the Dome at Fort Bliss and can relate to a lot of the experiences he had with the weapon. The only downside to this book is that it could use another review by an editor to catch a few misspellings and misuse of some terms. With that said, it is still a very good book. Includes some black and white photos.