The man who saved the world ( How an Obscure Russian Colonel Prevented Nuclear War in 1983 )

Worldnetdaily.com ^ | 12/21/2005 | Jim Rutz

[SirLinksalot]

The man who saved the world

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© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

You almost died in 1983.

Do you remember what you were doing on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 25, of that year? Not likely. But you came within a whisker of dying that day. Amazingly, the news about this didn't come out until 1998. And only since 2004 has the press actually begun to pick up on the story.

It was just after midnight, Sept. 26, and 120 staff were working the graveyard shift in Serpukhov-15, the secret USSR command bunker hidden in a forest 30 miles northeast of Moscow.

In the commander's chair was Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, 44, looking down from his mezzanine desk to the gymnasium-sized main floor filled with military officers and technicians charged with monitoring any U.S. missiles and retaliating instantly

Petrov was highly aware that Cold War tensions were acute, as USSR fighters had shot down a Korean airliner on Sept. 1. But he was completely shocked when the warning siren began to wail and two lights on his desk console began flashing MISSILE ATTACK and START. "Start" was the instruction to launch, irreversibly, all 5,000 or so Soviet missiles and obliterate America.

If you remember the 1959 movie "On the Beach," starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner – enormously popular in the USSR – you know that ambient, post-holocaust radiation was expected to wipe out all mankind. But this was no movie, it was the real thing, and Petrov's protocols gave him zero minutes to notify his superiors and President Yuri Andropov, who then would have just 12 minutes to get out of bed, think fast, and order a counterattack.

A new, unproven Soviet satellite system had picked up a flash in Montana near a Minuteman II silo. Then another – five, all told.

Petrov recalls his legs were "like cotton," as they say in Russian. He stared at the huge electronic wall map of the United States in terror and disbelief. As his staff gawked upward at him from the floor, he had the thought, "Who would order an attack with only five missiles? That big an idiot has not been born yet, not even in the U.S."

The Soviet procedure manual was inflexible, and it demanded he notify his superiors of the attack immediately. But relying on his intuition, Petrov disobeyed. For almost five minutes, he stalled, holding his hotline phone in one hand and his intercom in the other, barking orders to his personnel to get back to their desks. (Reprimanded later for not taking notes during the crisis, he replied, "I don't have a third hand.")

Then he made the decision that saved the world. Summoning up his firmest voice, he called his Kremlin liaison and said it was a false alarm. But today he admits, "I wasn't 100 percent sure. Not even close to 100 percent."

So the world slept on.

Months later, it was determined that sunlight reflecting off clouds in Montana had caused a faulty satellite computer assembly to report a missile launch flash. But by that time, Petrov's excellent military career had been sidetracked. He wasn't fired, but he was transferred – and never got any medals or recognition. When his wife was found to have a brain tumor in 1993, he retired to take care of her. When she died, he borrowed money to give her a funeral.

Today, Petrov is 67 and lives in a typical dreary, dank flat south of Moscow. His monthly pension is under $200, and his health is not good.

Yet, the world is starting to take note of Petrov. A "world peace" group is bringing him to New York Jan. 14-24 to make some speeches and be filmed. Though I have few sympathies for one-world organizations, I now duly applaud them for doing something right. In fact, I hope to fly to New York to shake the colonel's hand and perhaps interview him for my forthcoming videoblog.

If it all works out, I'll probably present him with a nice Russian Bible and whatever cash I can scrape together. If you'd like to help out by chipping in, you can send a tax-deductible check to one of my ministries:

Open Church Ministries Portal, GA 30450

Mark it "For Col. Petrov."

The amount, of course, is up to you. The way I look at it myself is: "How much do I give to somebody who saved my life?"

In this Christmas season, we pause to honor Another who saved our lives. Being a hero cost Petrov his career. It cost the Lord Jesus a lot more. Both deserve our thanks, don't they?

[SirLinksalot]

Sometimes, God works through the most obscure men. We almost never hear about people like these.

[BenLurkin]

There were other similar false alarm incidents during the cold war including some at NORAD.

It is the folks at NORAD who I would like to thank -- for doing their jobs defending America. Good work!

[z3n]

Why you alwasy have humans in the loop

[ClearCase_guy]

This is one reason Skynet would be a bad idea.

[Alberta's Child]

I remember reading about a similar incident in the 1980s involving a Norwegian weather balloon of some kind. The Norwegian government had notified the Soviet embassy in Oslo about it before it was launched, but the Soviets neglected to pass it up through their chain of command. The end result was that some senior Soviet military officer was left facing a dilemma when his tracking systems reported what they identified as a ballistic missile launch from a U.S. submarine in the Arctic Ocean.

If I remember correctly, what made the Norwegian incident so precarious is that it occurred soon after a number of Soviet military officers were sacked for failing to shoot down that German teenage idiot Matthew Rust when he landed his small plane in Red Square.

[Meadow Muffin]

It's not the guys who make the big bucks that God works through. Sometimes it't the middle man that comes through to save the day. At least a few more of us know the "rest of the Story". Thanks for the post.

[Frank_Discussion]

"Who would order an attack with only five missiles? That big an idiot has not been born yet, not even in the U.S."

That's funny material! LOL!

[pabianice]

[bmwcyle]

Read this book

[Frank_Discussion]

AW, c'mon:

"I'm from Skynet. I'm here to help."

[indcons]

The source is suspect

[Brilliant]

He deserves a better deal than this. I guess Hollywood thinks the Runaway Bride's life is more interesting, though.

[DustyMoment]

Wow! If Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov isn't a new hero of Russia, he certainly is for Americans.

Thank you, Col. Petrov, and thank God for putting him in the right place at the right time.

[Brilliant]

I've heard this story before. I don't think they made it up.

[Graymatter]

After a story like that, I like a good smoke.

I'll bet a carton of these he turns out to be a Hungarian used car salesman.

[Ditter]

I seem to remember this story, it is not the first time it has been told.

[Williams]

Whether justified or not, a great reply.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Actually that idiot was busy inventing the Internet.

[RightWhale]

We almost never hear about people like these

except on FR where the topic has been posted several times.

[Noumenon]

History often turns on the judgement of one individual. Never think that you can't make a difference.