Averted Nuclear War And Received World Citizen Award, page 1

posted on Jan, 21 2006 @ 12:02 AM

link

September 26, 1983 the world was very close to a nuclear war. At Russia’s main nuclear command center the console suddenly started to flash MISSILE ATTACK and START while warning sirens were wailing. The system indicated that the US had launched 5 nuclear missiles against the USSR. Russian Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov was the officer on duty and it was demanded of him to notify his superiors of the attack immediately and launch all 5,000 or so Russian nuclear missiles against the US. Instead he called Kremlin and told them it was a false alarm, even if he wasn´t sure that it was a false alarm. He found it strange that the US were not launching more than 5 missiles. It eventually turned out to be a false alarm. Because he disobeyed orders, he was transferred and never got any medals or recognition. Thursday 19th January 2006 he received a special World Citizen Award at a UN meeting in New York.

MosNews: Russian Colonel Who Averted Nuclear War Receives World Citizen Award

20.01.2006

Retired Russian colonel Stanislav Petrov received a special World Citizen Award at a UN meeting in New York on Thursday. Petrov was honored as the “Man Who Averted Nuclear War”. In a meeting held at the UN’s Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium on Jan. 19, the Association of World Citizens (AWC) presented the retired officer with his award. The inscription on the award, which has a granite base with a solid glass hand holding the earth, read: “The single hand that holds the earth symbolizes your heroic deed on September 26, 1983 that earned you the title: The Man Who Averted Nuclear War.” The back of the award read: “May the hand now symbolize humanity united to save our world by eliminating nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.” Back in 1983 Petrov made a decision that prevented a war that could have destroyed the planet. He was the duty officer at Russia’s main nuclear command center in September 1983 when the system indicated a nuclear missile attack was launched by the U.S. on Russia.

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. 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.”

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.

Today, Petrov, 67, lives in Moscow on a monthly pension of less than $200.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Wow, that was close! Hats off to Stanislav Petrov. Thank you!

boogyman

posted on Jan, 21 2006 @ 01:03 AM

link

Holy mackerel! Someone should set up a "Lt. Colonel Petrov Hero of the World" fund. God that really makes you shiver it's a miracle that common sense prevailed over Cold War paranoia.

GrowingConspiracy

posted on Jan, 21 2006 @ 06:16 AM

link

we need more people like this guy in eastern countries what a smart dude.

nrky

posted on Jan, 21 2006 @ 11:29 PM

link

I denounce the UN as a legitimate representative of peace-loving people around the world.
I also denounce the acknowledgement of 'heros' who 'saved' the world from 'the threat of nuclear disaster'. FAKE heros are the ones who are part of the Problem-Reaction-Solution formula of fake wars like the war on terror, the cold war, etc..

radioactive_liquid

posted on Jan, 29 2006 @ 06:16 PM

link

this man's name will and should be etched in history forever, a true citizen of the world.

Hellmutt

posted on Feb, 28 2006 @ 07:48 PM

link

On October 25th in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, a bear and a wrongly wired alarm almost started WWIII.

20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War

6) October 25, 1962- Cuban Missile Crisis: Intruder in Duluth

At around midnight on October 25, a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center saw a figure climbing the security fence. He shot at it, and activated the "sabotage alarm." This automatically set off sabotage alarms at all bases in the area. At Volk Field, Wisconsin, the alarm was wrongly wired, and the Klaxon sounded which ordered nuclear armed F-106A interceptors to take off. The pilots knew there would be no practice alert drills while DEFCON 3 was in force, and they believed World War III had started.

Immediate communication with Duluth showed there was an error. By this time aircraft were starting down the runway. A car raced from command center and successfully signaled the aircraft to stop. The original intruder was a bear.

There are some other incidents on that page as well.

Hellmutt

posted on Oct, 4 2009 @ 01:42 PM

link

There was also another dangerous incident during the Cuban missile crisis. On October 27 1962, only two days after the intruding bear at Duluth and the wrongly wired alarm at Volk Field, Wisconsin, nearly triggered WWIII, the following happened:

Vasiliy Arkhipov

During the Cuban Missile Crisis he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo and therefore a possible nuclear war.

[---]

On October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph trapped a nuclear-armed Soviet Foxtrot class submarine B-59 near Cuba and started dropping practice depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. Allegedly, the captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, believing that a war might already have started, prepared to launch a retaliatory nuclear-tipped torpedo.

Three officers on board the submarine — Savitsky, the Political Officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, and the Second in command Arkhipov — were authorized to launch the torpedo if they agreed unanimously in favour of doing so. An argument broke out among the three, in which only Arkhipov was against the launch, eventually persuading Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow. The nuclear warfare which presumably would have ensued was thus averted.

Another close one...

OzWeatherman

posted on Oct, 4 2009 @ 03:47 PM

link

Wow

Thats was a close one!

At least some common sense prevailed with that. Id hate to see what wouldve happened if some moron was in charge. Did they ever determine what the flash in Montana was?

aboutface

posted on Feb, 10 2012 @ 09:22 AM

link

reply to post by OzWeatherman

I just came across this story today. It's really mind-blowing, and it's a 'what if' malfunction scenario we all wondered about during nightmares. So am bumping this thread in the hope ohers will see it. (and S&F)

since your link is no longer working, I'll add one I found here

edit on 10-2-2012 by aboutface because: added link

edit on 10-2-2012 by aboutface because: sorry Oz, I meant to reply to Hellman

aboutface

posted on Feb, 10 2012 @ 09:27 AM

link

reply to post by aboutface

I meant Hellmutt!
Oh darn, I really need a second coffee.

darkblade71

posted on Feb, 10 2012 @ 10:37 AM

link

reply to post by nrky

The cold war was not a fake war.

Many people died in the cold war. Just look at the people who tried to escape eastern Germany. The cold war was a very real war. Many died.

Look at the joy when the Berlin wall fell. It was a war of oppression. But a war none the less.

Hellmutt

posted on Sep, 20 2017 @ 08:42 AM

link

RIP Stanislav Petrov!

Stanislav Petrov, 'The Man Who Saved The World,' Dies At 77

September 18, 2017

"The siren howled, but I just sat there for a few seconds, staring at the big, back-lit, red screen with the word 'launch' on it," Petrov told the BBC in 2013.

Petrov died on May 19, at age 77, in a suburb outside Moscow, according to news reports Monday. He had long since retired and was living alone. News of his death apparently went unrecognized at the time.

Karl Schumacher, a German political activist who had highlighted Petrov's actions in recent years, tried to contact Petrov earlier this month to wish him a happy birthday. Instead, he reached Petrov's son, Dmitri, who said his father had died in May.