Red Eye Fulda Cold: A War in the Cold Novel

Author Bill Fortin deftly combines fictional characters and people he served with in the United States Army to recount some important but little-known events during the Cold War. His story takes the reader to the people and places of the late 1960s European Military Theater’s 3rd Armor Division. In particular Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brogan’s 1st/48th Infantry Battalion is the center of a series of carefully crafted CIA military operations designed to thwart a possible Russian invasion through the infamous Fulda Gap.

Redeye Fulda Cold: A War in the Cold Novel depicts the best qualities of American youth in the 1960s. While this story is fiction, it addresses real life issues about overcoming adversity, having a positive attitude, serving one’s country and developing an unshakeable esprit de corps. We can see these same inspiring values in the men and women who proudly serve in the U.S. military and protect our precious freedoms today.

Rick Fontain is a 19 year old college student when he is drafted into the Army. He narrates this fascinating tale of emerging high tech weaponry, military strategy, and international intrigue. Central to the action is Redeye – the Army’s first shoulder-fired guided missile system and a first glimpse of our development of drone aircraft expertise. Rick’s aptitude for the new infra-red technology and his leadership skills place him and his handpicked team at the center of this high stakes political and military game of cat and mouse.

. . . “I was receiving an education that normally would take most career NCOs years to gain. I was being groomed for something but not sure for what. They knew I was getting out in a few months. Maybe they hoped I would change my mind. There were worse ways to spend your life, I supposed. The acceptance of responsibility and the decision making was becoming second nature. Truth be told, I was really starting to like this time in service. The company of soldiers was the strongest feeling of friendship I had ever experienced. I wondered if it was because the stakes were always so high, the trust so fragile but so easily given. We counted on each other for everything”.