Was he a famous actor?? nope. Was he a famous poker player. Nope. So who was Stanislov Petrov since you've likely never heard of him well in short he's probably one of the biggest heros in the history of man who many knew nothing about. Story starts in 1983...
LTC Petrov was watch officer in the Soviet Union's version of NORAD the evening of Sept 26, 1983 when Soviet early warning system went off alerting of a single ICBM launch by the USA. Within a couple mins 3-4 additional launch indications were shown. Petrov had to make a decision whether or not to alert his superiors. He believed it had to be a malfunction because they were always taught an attack wouldn't be only one or a couple of missiles it would be a mass launching by the US Strategic forces. Petrov chose that night to NOT alert his superiors knowing likely if he did the USSR would indeed launch a massive retaliatory strike which would end with hundreds of millions of dead and Nuclear Winter.
It turned out the malfunction had occurred due to sunlight glinting off the clouds which had the satellites fooled. LTC Petrov as expected not only didn't get a commendation by Soviet High Command because they didn't like their officers to think for themselves he was indeed shipped to a remote military post in Siberia for his averting WWIII. His wife died in 1997 without knowing her husbands heroism, in fact it wasn't until the following year in 1998 when his commanding General acknowledged the incident and the fact Petrov was a hero. Petrov gave an interview to RT (the Russian network that broadcasts in english on Satellite and some cable).
Petrov died earlier this year but news only came out in the last few days when a reporter tried to contact Petrov and his son told the reporter Petrov died in late May.
So there ya go folks the man who kept us from blowing ourselves up in 1983 has passed away at age 77. He may not have been some huge icon of media sports etc, but if not for LTC Petrov it's very likely none of us would be here today.
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Originally Posted by verminaard
