The business trip to Afghanistan is coming to an end. The prospects for Senior Lieutenant Rodin are the brightest. But the road to the peaks of flight skill is never easy. The end of 1981 was approaching. The military operation in the west of Afghanistan was entering its final stage. The defeat and encirclement of the “Two Lions” grouping of Masud and Ismail is just around the corner. The border is sealed, and Soviet troops are assaulting fortified areas. The course of the longest war in the history of the Soviet Union has been changed.