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March 10, 2008
The Man Who Saved the World
This is a pretty cool story that I'd never heard before. Apparently, in 1983, we came really close to getting nuked accidentally. Thank God that cool heads prevailed.
"Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov was duty officer at Serpukhov-15, the secret bunker outside Moscow that monitored the Soviet Union's early-warning satellite system, when the alarm bells went off shortly after midnight. One of the satellites signaled Moscow that the United States had launched five ballistic missiles at Russia.
Given the heightened tensions between the two countries -- the alarm coincided with the beginning of provocative NATO military exercises and barely three weeks after the Russians shot down a South Korean airliner that had wandered into Soviet air space -- Petrov could have been forgiven for believing the signal was accurate. The electronic maps flashing around him didn't do anything to ease the stress of the moment."
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926
Posted by Rob Kiser on March 10, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Comments
How Nukes Were Almost Launched From Okinawa During Cuban Missile Crisis (Slashdot. October 26, 2015).
"By Bordne's account, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Air Force crews on Okinawa were ordered to launch 32 missiles, each carrying a large nuclear warhead. Only caution and the common sense and decisive action of the line personnel receiving those orders prevented the launches -- and averted the nuclear war that most likely would have ensued."
Posted by: anonymous on October 26, 2015 at 12:36 PM
Soviet Air Defense Officer Who Saved The World Dies At Age 77
Petrov was the one person standing between a missile-launch warning and probable nuclear war.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/soviet-air-defense-officer-who-saved-the-world-dies-at-age-77/
Posted by: anonymous on September 18, 2017 at 6:56 PM