The day we almost Died
Did you know that you almost died in 1983?
In 1983, I was 11, and I was terrified by the news. I knew a little about politics, and I undrestood that there was a real possibility of the world exploding in a nuclear war.
Somehow this was worse than the normal fears of an 11 year old boy. It wasn't just the monster in the closet, or "stranger danger" or the devil. It wasn't personal. There was nothing I could do about it, and it would mean the end of everything. All because someone got an itchy trigger finger.
I understood this fear the way only a child can. Every moment of every day, every vapor trail in the sky, every flash of light at night, I prayed for the human race.
1983 was an especially scary time for me. Reagan was president, and he had already called the USSR the "Evil Empire." At the wise old age of 11, I knew better than that. Evil is a personal, metaphysical thing, not an appropriate way to describe one's geopolitical rival.
(yes I did talk like that when I was 11... and yes, I got beat up a lot.)
I had a pretty low opinion of Reagan, I thought he might have been a little senile, and I thought (as did the Soviet leadership) that he just might be stupid enough to do it.
Around Midnight on Monday, September 26, 1983, (Sunday afternoon in the US), Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov went to work on his day off.
Petrov was in command of the early warning system used by the USSR to detect a missile attack by the US. A few minutes into his shift, alarms began to sound, and the computers showed first one, then five missiles flying to the USSR from the US.
Petrov had no information except the saltellites telling him an attack was happening. Alarms, lights, and training all worked against the survival of humanity.
After five minutes of hand-wringing, Petrov called Moscow and said it was a false alarm. He had no reason to believe this was so, just "instinct." Then he waited another 10 minutes to see if he was right. Petrov later said, "I thought if the United states attacked, they would send more missiles."
Smart.
Thank you, Stanislav.
posted by JC at 10:41 PM
5 Comments:
We should celebrate the day for him.
Makes me question God and fate, things like this.
Perhaps I will ponder it all over a Rose of Muhammed and a tea latte.
Or maybe I'll go make a prophet biscuit instead.
Oh, and about last night... 'member, I asked you to briefly explain this guy?
Your post is shorter than your "brief" explination. I thought I would never get to the point of the story.
You like to hear yourself talk, huh?
You do have a great phone sex voice, but you are a true windbag.
Funny how I ask what a word means and I get the etymology and the OED version.
I love you too comma always.
So what was the inbound signal cause?
From what I've read, the USSR investigated the issue for about a year and decided it was a reflection off of the earth that tricked the satellites into reporting incoming missiles.
That's something I didn't know! Wow. How did I miss that?
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