Posted on 09/17/2017 4:00:31 PM PDT by McGruff
On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov was on duty in charge of an early warning radar system in a bunker near Moscow, when just past midnight he saw the radar screen showing a single missile inbound from the United States and headed toward the Soviet Union.
“When I first saw the alert message, I got up from my chair. All my subordinates were confused, so I started shouting orders at them to avoid panic. I knew my decision would have a lot of consequences,” Petrov recalled of that fateful night in an interview with RT in 2010.
“The siren went off for a second time. Giant blood-red letters appeared on our main screen, saying START. It said that four more missiles had been launched,” he said. From the moment the warheads had taken off, there was only half an hour for the Kremlin to decide on whether to push the red button in retaliation and just 15 minutes for Petrov to determine whether the threat was real and report to his commanders.
“My cozy armchair felt like a red-hot frying pan and my legs went limp. I felt like I couldn't even stand up. That's how nervous I was when I was taking this decision,” he told RT.
Taught that in case of a real attack the US would have gone on an all-out offensive, Petrov told his bosses the alarm must have been caused by a system malfunction. “I’ll admit it, I was scared. I knew the level of responsibility at my fingertips,” he said.
It was later revealed that what the Soviet satellites took for missiles launch was sunlight reflected from clouds. Petrov’s action, however, received no praise, and he was scolded for not filling in a service journal.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
Thank you, Mr. Petrov.
May you be with God.
Bad link.
He was smart to understand that if we were gonna attack...deliberately attack....it would *not* have been just one missile.
I got chills reading this story and thinking about it.
assuming the truth of this account, and it has been repeated several times over the years,...
I am SO GLAD the Russian navy had him there,
instead of an Affirmative Action recruit
If the story Petrov tells is true, then it is quite alarming that one man - and not some group of men - had the power to decide the fate of the world.
Here’s a wikipedia link that basically tells the same story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
I pray Mr. Petrov knew the Savior of the Universe - Jesus Christ.
The people in the Russian missile warning trenches weren't forwarded a copy of the Notice-of-Rocket-Launch-So-You-Don't-Nuke-Us-By-Mistake memo, and the alert went up the chain.
Evidently, the people in the Defense Ministry weren't aware of the launch either, so they went on full alert, ready to launch.
I remember an earlier near terrifying incident back in 1962.
We had just been through the Cuban Missile Crisis and were on edge when on Dec 24, there was a sudden break in programing to warn us that an unidentified object had just been detected by the “DEW LINE” coming south across the North Pole toward the USA!
Pucker factor suddenly kicks in!
Then they showed a silly cheap photo of Santa Claus and his sleigh with cotton ball clouds floating by.
I wasn’t sure what to think. Be PO’d for the scare, or be relieved that it wasn’t Russian Missiles..
Stanislav Petrov - God speed.
Thank you
RIP.
Would you like to play a game?
Strange game. Only winning move is not to play.
So true.
Yes, it appears Petrov was a genuine world hero.
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