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?

[LibertarianInExile]

"This is one reason Skynet would be a bad idea."

Just keep one eye on Cyberdyne, everything will be all right.

[Bear_Slayer]

Do you think they will let me live in Montana?

[Fred Nerks]

I gotta get me a PO Box.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

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?"

Saved "my life"?

More like saved the world, and saved the lives for many future descendants of all of us who otherwise never would have been born. That is a pretty selfish thought to say he "saved my life"-he saved the planet.

[carl in alaska]

Now imagine what an Iranian military officer might do in the same situation.

[Issaquahking]

If your referring to Cobra Dane, it is a real place and system. Been there and worked on system. Amazing what you may discover on FR!

[M203M4]

reminder bump

[Paul C. Jesup]

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

We should quit giving God credit and give this man credit for realizing the obvious and saving the world.

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