50/50

[Hertston]

What was everyone doing in blissful ignorance on 29 September 1983? [X(]

Stanislav Petrov: The man who may have saved the world

[Terminus]

Ah yes, the gallant Stanislav Petrov. Lots of people owe that man their lives.

1983 was the most dangerous year of the Cold War. Forget the Berlin blockade or the Cuban Missile Crisis, this was it.

[E]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Ah yes, the gallant Stanislav Petrov. Lots of people owe that man their lives.

1983 was the most dangerous year of the Cold War. Forget the Berlin blockade or the Cuban Missile Crisis, this was it.

This was not the first, nor was it the only time a near-thing occurred due to equipment malfunction. Sanity prevailed in all instances (scary in one way, while oddly reassuring in another). Stanislav Petrov is one of many unsung cold war heroes that people owe their lives to.

[Terminus]

I know. Plenty of equipment malfunctions, on BOTH sides. Remember that recent story of a hydrogen bomb that just barely didn't explode after falling out of a B-52?

[Joel Levin]

we we're one button away from radscorpions and super mutants.. Shame... :p
joking aside i'm quite content not living in a post apocalyptic radioactive wasteland!

[JWW]

Hmmmm. 30 years ago today I was halfway through a two-year tour as a company commander at Ft. Polk, LA.

[Neilster]

I've just been reading about it and other Cold War stuff in The Dead Hand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Hand

Cheers, Neilster

[Jevhaddah]

I was on duty at sea serving in a NATO Task Force when this was happening, I took piccys of the ships but can't bloody find em....

I was on the 1981 one part as well...

Hadn't a bloody clue what was going on though [:D]

Cheers

Jev

[Qwixt]

I was in Ft Hood, Texas. So doing whatever grunt work of the day was required for a PFC or Sp4.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

What was everyone doing in blissful ignorance on 29 September 1983? [X(]

Stanislav Petrov: The man who may have saved the world

Interesting. One of my old bosses at a real estate title company I once worked for (really nice guy) told me a similar story about something that happened while he was on active duty in the air force. Apparently he was stationed in one of the missile silos back in the 70s. He was the commanding officer in the silo at the time or something and they received an alert that got interpreted as the "real thing". They were supposed to launch their missile but he basically refused to issue the order. He said he later went on a tour of the facilities years later and the tour guide mentioned something about the incident to the group he was with. He said he didn't mention anything to the tour guide about it. He was kind of embarrassed about it. I told him he sounded like a hero to me.

EDIT: I think we turned out fortunate that there were sane people on both sides of the globe who didn't want to see the world go up in smoke. I would think there are probably many little acts of heroism that will never surface of people who did their part to keep us all safe from the insanity that seemed to prevail at the time.