Earlier that day, and halfway across the world, 44 tear-old LTC Stanislov Petrov was a few hours into his shift at the Soviet Air Defense Forces when its early-warning satellites over the United States set off alarms.
Computers warned that five Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles had been launched from an American base.
Three week earlier, the Soviets had shot down a Korean Air Lines flight, killing all 269 people aboard, including a Georgia congressman. President Reagan had rejected calls for freezing the arms race, calling the U.S.S.R. an "evil empire." And Soviet leader at the time, Yuri Andropov, was obsessed by fears of an American attack. [Source] Clearly, it was a tense time.
Yet instead of reporting the alert up his chain of command, Petrov decided -- on a 50-50 guy feeling -- that it was a false alarm.
“I told myself I won’t be the cause of World War III. I won’t. Simple as that,” he said. “If they imprison me, OK. But something told me that over there, on the other side of the ocean, are people just like me. They probably don’t want war.” [Source]
At the time, we Americans were completely unaware of Petrov's actions. They only came to light in 1998, after political activist Karl Schumacher learned of his role in the incident.
He said that when TV reports started calling him a hero, he was surprised. "I was literally just doing my job." [Source]
Nevertheless, at the time Petrov's actions earned him an official reprimand -- for making mistakes in his logbook. [Source]
Sadly, he passed away on May 19th, at age 77. Though I didn't know about him in his lifetime, it's fair to say many on Earth today are alive -- at least in part -- because of his cool and sound judgment. What he only suspected was true: that there were, in fact, people on the other side of the world like him -- people who did not want war.
Perhaps there's a lesson here for others in positions of power.(1)(2)
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Hero #17 Stanislav Petrov
Of the 1460 hits my blog has received over the past month, 650 have come from Russia. At nearly 45 percent, this constitutes a clear plurality -- more that twice as many hits as the next country. So it seems appropriate that I should honor a Russian patriot as one of my heroes today.
Back on September 26th, 1983, I was a third grader at Rutland Elementary School in LaSalle County, Illinois. Given that it was a Monday, I would have gotten on the school bus with my sister, sat with my friend Jon, and watched the rows in the corn fields go by like a million caterpillar legs during the 20 minute ride.
I would have sat in Mrs. Workman's class, probably taken a spelling test, and thanked God that Ms. Hoffman was no longer my teacher. She was my second grade teacher, and I remember her for both her mean attitude and all the skin tabs she had on the right side of her neck.
After school, I may have had basketball practice, and then waited for my mother to pick me up -- hopefully while it was light out. When I got home, I probably did my homework, and then played on our ColecoVision or Atari 2600 until it was time to go to bed at 8:30.
Yet of all the things I did that day, there's one thing I'm certain I didn't do: die in a nuclear holocaust initiated by the Soviet Union.
Earlier that day, and halfway across the world, 44 tear-old LTC Stanislov Petrov was a few hours into his shift at the Soviet Air Defense Forces when its early-warning satellites over the United States set off alarms.
Computers warned that five Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles had been launched from an American base.
Three week earlier, the Soviets had shot down a Korean Air Lines flight, killing all 269 people aboard, including a Georgia congressman. President Reagan had rejected calls for freezing the arms race, calling the U.S.S.R. an "evil empire." And Soviet leader at the time, Yuri Andropov, was obsessed by fears of an American attack. [Source] Clearly, it was a tense time.
Yet instead of reporting the alert up his chain of command, Petrov decided -- on a 50-50 guy feeling -- that it was a false alarm.
“I told myself I won’t be the cause of World War III. I won’t. Simple as that,” he said. “If they imprison me, OK. But something told me that over there, on the other side of the ocean, are people just like me. They probably don’t want war.” [Source]
At the time, we Americans were completely unaware of Petrov's actions. They only came to light in 1998, after political activist Karl Schumacher learned of his role in the incident.
He said that when TV reports started calling him a hero, he was surprised. "I was literally just doing my job." [Source]
Nevertheless, at the time Petrov's actions earned him an official reprimand -- for making mistakes in his logbook. [Source]
Sadly, he passed away on May 19th, at age 77. Though I didn't know about him in his lifetime, it's fair to say many on Earth today are alive -- at least in part -- because of his cool and sound judgment. What he only suspected was true: that there were, in fact, people on the other side of the world like him -- people who did not want war.
Perhaps there's a lesson here for others in positions of power.(1)(2)
Earlier that day, and halfway across the world, 44 tear-old LTC Stanislov Petrov was a few hours into his shift at the Soviet Air Defense Forces when its early-warning satellites over the United States set off alarms.
Computers warned that five Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles had been launched from an American base.
Three week earlier, the Soviets had shot down a Korean Air Lines flight, killing all 269 people aboard, including a Georgia congressman. President Reagan had rejected calls for freezing the arms race, calling the U.S.S.R. an "evil empire." And Soviet leader at the time, Yuri Andropov, was obsessed by fears of an American attack. [Source] Clearly, it was a tense time.
Yet instead of reporting the alert up his chain of command, Petrov decided -- on a 50-50 guy feeling -- that it was a false alarm.
“I told myself I won’t be the cause of World War III. I won’t. Simple as that,” he said. “If they imprison me, OK. But something told me that over there, on the other side of the ocean, are people just like me. They probably don’t want war.” [Source]
At the time, we Americans were completely unaware of Petrov's actions. They only came to light in 1998, after political activist Karl Schumacher learned of his role in the incident.
He said that when TV reports started calling him a hero, he was surprised. "I was literally just doing my job." [Source]
Nevertheless, at the time Petrov's actions earned him an official reprimand -- for making mistakes in his logbook. [Source]
Sadly, he passed away on May 19th, at age 77. Though I didn't know about him in his lifetime, it's fair to say many on Earth today are alive -- at least in part -- because of his cool and sound judgment. What he only suspected was true: that there were, in fact, people on the other side of the world like him -- people who did not want war.
Perhaps there's a lesson here for others in positions of power.(1)(2)
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