The Man Who Prevented WWIII

Biggins

The Man Who Prevented WWIII


Ever heard of Stanislav Petrov?

Probably not—but you may very well owe him your life.
Petrov, a former member of the Soviet military, didn’t actually do anything but that’s precisely the point.

In 1983, Petrov held a very important station: As lieutenant colonel, he was in charge of monitoring the Soviet Union’s satellites over the United States, and watching for any sign of unauthorized military action.
This was the Cold War era, and suspicions were high; on September 1, the Soviet Union had mistakenly shot down a Korean aircraft it had believed to be a military plane, killing 269 civilians, including an American Congressman. The Soviet Union believed that the United States might launch a missile attack at any moment, and that they would be forced to respond with their own arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Several weeks after the airplane disaster, on September 23, another officer called in sick, so Petrov was stuck working a double shift at a secret bunker, monitoring satellite activity, when “suddenly the screen in front of me turned bright red,” Petrov told BBC News. “An alarm went off. It was piercing, loud enough to raise a dead man from his grave.”

According to the system, the United States had launched five missiles, which were rapidly heading into Soviet territory. The U.S.S.R. was under attack.

All Petrov had to do was push the flashing red button on the desk in front of him, and the Soviets would retaliate with their own battery of missiles, launching a full-scale nuclear war.
“For fifteen seconds, we were in a state of shock,” he told The Washington Post. “We needed to understand, what’s next?”
Though the bunker atmosphere was chaotic, Petrov, who had trained as a scientist, took the time to analyze the data carefully before making his decision. He realized that, if the U.S. did attack, they would be unlikely to launch a mere five missiles at once. And when he studied the system’s ground-based radar, he could see no evidence of oncoming missiles.

He still couldn’t say for sure what was going on, but “I had a funny feeling in my gut,” he told The Post. “I didn’t want to make a mistake. I made a decision, and that was it.”

Luckily for all of us, he decided not to push that button. Later, his instincts were proven right—the malfunctioning system had given him a false alarm, and the U.S. had not deployed any missiles. Thanks to Petrov’s cool head, nuclear war had been narrowly averted, and millions of lives were saved.

Unfortunately, Petrov didn’t exactly receive a heroic reward from the Soviet military: Embarrassed by their own mistakes, and angry at Petrov for breaking military protocol, they forced him into early retirement with a pension of $200 a month. Petrov’s brave act was kept secret from the outside world until the 1998 publication of a book by one of Petrov’s fellow officers, who witnessed his courage on that terrifying night.

Since the book’s publication, Petrov has been honored by the United Nations and presented with a World Citizen Award, and there has been talk of giving him the Nobel Prize. Still, the humble Russian scientist plays down his role in averting a nuclear crisis: “I was simply the right person in the right time, that was all,” he said in the upcoming documentary, The Red Button and the Man Who Saved the World.
We’ve got to disagree with him. Sure, he may have done nothing but in this case, it might just be the hardest thing to do.

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22343/84651-prevented-wwiii

smashey

Damn. I thought he played football for Aston Villa.

fryup

buy that man a pint

wudangclan

good on ya,petrov.

loveissucide

I'm full of admiration for him.By being crap at his job he saved the world.

Piste

He really should get the nobel prize. It's a bit crazy that Obama did and this guy didn't.

MagicMarker

Damn communists.

Diabhal Beag

Somebody else would have if he didn't. He's no Stilian or Martin Petrov though

Elessar

There's more to it than this. I was watching a BBC documentary on him and in it IIRC he was ordered, more than once by superior officers to launch a counter strike, but he didn't. And the alarms went off multiple times. Turns out it was sunflare that was confusing the satellites.

The world truely does owe this man a large debt.

SV

What's this people saying he was crap at his job?
As far as I can tell this makes him pretty outstanding at his job..

Biggins

He saved more lives in 5 minutes than Bush has killed in eight years.

Long Onion

Monkeycock

Biggins

SV wrote: »

What's this people saying he was crap at his job?
As far as I can tell this makes him pretty outstanding at his job..

I think they mean "officially" he was crap at his job.
Morally and for using his calm head, in all honesty, he was/is THEE right man for the job.

Sofiztikated

Elessar wrote: »

The world truely does owe this man a large debt.

What, we owe him money! Damn FF and their policies.

:pac:

galwayrush

Does he have an Irish granny? he could play for us if he did.:D

citizen_p

a world humanitarian award dosnt put food on his table...

id much perfer an extra 200 euro a week

ejmaztec

galwayrush wrote: »

Does he have an Irish granny? he could play for us if he did.:D

He'd be too indecisive to kick the ball.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

They need to name a wodka after this guy!!! stat!!

mike65

Old news! I knew that years ago, the only times we all nearly got vapourized were when an accident nearly happened.

My name is URL

Yeah... well.. what has he done lately?

anniehoo

Thanks for that Biggins! Im amazed..he was some man to follow his gut instinct rather than give in to pressure from others. The world needs a few more like him.

ScumLord

If my job was sitting around waiting to press a big red button I would have jumped on the chance to push it.

humanji

Biggins wrote: »

He saved more lives in 5 minutes than Bush has killed in eight years.

I'm sure he's saved more lives than all of us have killed in 8 years.

asdasd

He saved more lives in 5 minutes than Bush has killed in eight years.

He saved the world. The Americans would have responded to his response to the fake missiles with real missiles. The Soviets then responded to those and the 50-75K missiles deployed around the world at the time would have ended the world. i believe there were 4 targeted at Ireland.

ScumLord

asdasd wrote: »

He saved the world. The Americans would have responded to his response to the fake missiles with real missiles. The Soviets then responded to those and the 50-75K missiles deployed around the world at the time would have ended the world. i believe there were 4 targeted at Ireland.

WTF? That's not cool dude. :mad:

Wagon

That's one of the coolest things ive heard in ages! If anyone earned a complimentary keg of Arthurs finest, it's him. Cheers Petrov!

Blazer

pfttt..old news...in fact do a search and you'll find this thread was on boards about 9 months ago at least.:p

asdasd

That's one of the coolest things ive heard in ages! If anyone earned a complimentary keg of Arthurs finest, it's him. Cheers Petrov!

It's cool but scary at the same time. Remember there are still approx 20,000 warheads out there.

SoWatchaWant

Cool story, but it was Ozymandias really, wasn't it?

Bobeagleburger

Fcuking hell, what a false alarm to receive !!

wudangclan

SoWatchaWant wrote: »

Cool story, but it was Ozymandias really, wasn't it?

i think you're getting mixed up with ozzy osbourne.