This Guy's Quick Thinking Saved Us All

Via Powerline and Mark McDonald of Knight-Ridder:

Stanislav Petrov single-handedly prevented a nuclear war in late September 1983. He was in command of the Soviet Union's early-warning radar installation when a new satellite array, called Oko (The Eye), indicated a launch of five American Minuteman II ICBMs. While relations between the Soviets and Americans were especially awful at that time, just a week after a Soviet fighter had shot down a Korean airliner, Petrov knew something wasn't right. Why would the Americans start an attack with only five missiles?

He contacted his superiors and told them confidently (though he himself was less than 100% confident he was right) that it was a false alarm. The failure of any of the Motherland to turn to vapor in the next few hours proved he indeed was right, as did the subsequent investigation that showed the satellites had seen not the launch flash of the missiles leaving their silos, but sunlight reflected off some clouds over those silos. Oops.

Stanislav Petrov has not had an easy life since; he lost his wife, and now lives a meager existence in Moscow. While the Soviets acknowledged the problem with their system in the official follow-up reporting, there was no reward for those who prevented catastrophe. Petrov deserves the respect and gratitude of the world he saved.