‘The country that attacks first will die 27 minutes later’ Peace prize winner Petrov

[geetrue]

I'm glad I got to read this thirty (30) years after it almost really happened.

What a horrible accident this could've been

The International Peace Prize ceremony was held in Dresden. Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov became the prize-winner this year. On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov prevented the beginning of a potential nuclear war. During his shift on the night of September 26, the airspace control system received a report that the US was planning an attack against the Soviet Union. In an interview with Voice of Russia Petrov remembers that there was shock, bewilderment, and confuw into panic when the ‘red button’ could be pushed.

Lieutenant Colonel Petrov immediately reported the message to senior commanders, but he thought it was perhaps an error and decided to perform a diagnostic systems check. After his decision to further investigate, it turned out that the system had failed and the alarm was false.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_02_19/Th...nislav-Petrov/

[Oberon]

Good, I'm glad that Petrov has got recognition and an award for his actions. Despite the fact that they were, in fact, a gross violation of his standing orders, he may well have saved the Northern hemisphere from major destruction. One of those moments when following orders is not necessarily the correct action to take.

I do wonder how far it would have gone though if Petrov had reported it, woudl the Soviets have launched? Or would it had been stopped somewhere along the line? Either way, I'm glad that Petrov was where he was, and did what he did.

[Jimbuna]

Makes one wonder how many times we have come close to pressing the button on both sides but nothing official has been released

[fireftr18]

All I have to say is, "Thank you Colonel Petov, you did an excellent job."

[Red October1984]

I saw a documentary on this one time. If it weren't for that Russian Officer, I would never have been born.

Thank you Petrov for what you did even though I doubt you'll see this.

(Is the even guy still alive?)

[Armistead]

I'm sure the Russians then had a multi-layer system of launch parameters, but glad he played his part.

Red, I was born because of the Cuban Missle Crisis, so it worked out for me. My father was in the Air Force, figured the end of the world was coming and him and mom had unprotected sex.

[geetrue]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

Thank you Petrov for what you did even though I doubt you'll see this.

(Is the even guy still alive?)

Yes, he's stil alive and very humble about it too.

I also thought the russians were going to be the cause of WWIII during the Cuban missile crisis. I was in the Navy at the time as a radarman at the time right before I went to subs. The OOD woke everyone up on the ship I was on and had us man the rail in San Diego harbor due to a small boat coming too close to the docked ship.

Then again in November 1963 President Kenendy was killed while I was on patrol on a diesel boat 10 miles off of Kamchata, Russia. We were low on fuel and pulled into Adak, Alaska for fuel.

The NAS Adak wouldn't even let us depart the boat all we could do is get fuel (not that there was anything to do on that barren island anyway).

We thought we were going to war then for sure.

Fear in the greek language means "respect"

I respect our enemy and how I hope they fear us too