# September 26, 1983, the day the world nearly ended.



## evangilder (Sep 27, 2008)

Amazing, but true.



> On 26th September, 1983, at the nadir of the Cold War, this man — Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov — made a judgement call that saved my life. (I was then living five miles from the Vickers Tank Factory in Leeds and about ten miles from the M1/M62 intersection — both major strategic targets.) If you're over 25 years old and live in the UK, he saved your life, too. If you're over 25 years old and lived in the USA, there's about a 70% probability that he saved you. And so on. Iterate for everyone in every NATO and Warsaw Pact country, all 750 million of us.
> 
> He lost his job for it, and suffered a nervous breakdown. He doesn't consider himself to be a hero. Nevertheless, he bent the regulations and risked punishment to prevent a disaster from overwhelming us all.
> 
> I'm going to raise a glass to him tonight. How about you?



FAQ

Stanislav Petrov - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 27, 2008)

Good man! 



He should have been promoted and not forced into retirement. Pretty sad that he would be treated that way.


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## FLYBOYJ (Sep 27, 2008)




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## syscom3 (Sep 27, 2008)

I didnt even know this incident happened!!!!

Thanks evans


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## evangilder (Sep 27, 2008)

A lot of people didn't know about it until recently. I found it one of the many stories of heroes of the Cold War that are just starting to trickle out.


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## wilbur1 (Sep 28, 2008)

Thats a great story Evan thanks 8)


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## Matt308 (Sep 28, 2008)

Reminds me of War Games.


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## ToughOmbre (Sep 28, 2008)

Never heard about this!

Great piece of information Eric.

TO


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## pbfoot (Sep 28, 2008)

979 Nov.9: Computer Exercise Tape.

At 8.50 a.m. on 9 November, 1979, duty officers at 4 command centres
(NORAD HQ, SAC Command Post, the Pentagon National Military Command
Center, and the Alternate National Military Command Center) all saw on
their displays a pattern showing a large number of Soviet missiles in a
full-scale attack on U.S.A. During the next 6 minutes emergency
preparations for retaliation were made. A number of Air Force planes
were launched, including the president's National Emergency Airborne
Command Post, though without the president! The president had not been
informed, perhaps because he could not be found.

No attempt was made to use the hot line either to ascertain the Soviet
intentions or to tell the Russians the reason for the U.S. actions.
This seems to me to have been culpable negligence. The whole purpose of
the "Hot Line" was to prevent exactly the type of disaster that was
threatening at that moment.

With commendable speed, NORAD was able to contact PAVE PAWS early
warning radar and learn that no missiles had been reported. Also, the
sensors on satellites were functioning that day and had detected no
missiles. In only 6 minutes the threat assessment conference was
terminated.

The reason for the false alarm was an exercise tape running on the
computer system. U.S. Senator Charles Percy happened to be in NORAD HQ
at the time and is reported to have said there was absolute panic. A
question was asked in Congress. The General Accounting Office conducted
an investigation, and an off-site testing facility was constructed so
that test tapes did not in future have to be run on a system that could
possibly be in military operation.



I was working at a NORAD base in Comox BC in tower and it was something watching the pilots run to the aircraft in all sorts of attire . I don't know if its correct or just bull but we were the only ones to get our birds up of all the NORAD bases. Those techs were good on the F101's


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## Njaco (Sep 28, 2008)

Check the date....

The Hot Line was busy, Carter was talking to Iran. 

As for Petrov,


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## timshatz (Sep 29, 2008)

Good job Petrov. Might or might not've gone to full nuclear war. But the point is, he stopped it before the process could start. 

A month or two later, we almost had another nukefest with Able Archer. 

Able Archer 83 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All those spies and nobody analysing the information?


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## JugBR (Oct 2, 2008)

o good officer is allways better than a computer parafernalia or a band of fanatic jerkz.


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## RabidAlien (Oct 2, 2008)

Look at it this way...if the same had happened in the US (and it probably did, knowing the computers of the day), and an officer had failed to do his duty, we would've run him out of the military on a rail studded with rusty nails. Much much later, when events (and time) would prove the individual correct, any thanks would most likely have been quiet and unannounced. After all, how do you give a medal to a guy who disobeyed a direct and lawful order (at the time)? That's a can of worms you DON'T want to open. In this guy's case, I'm sure he woke up every morning thanking the Lord that, being in Cold War Russia, he was _able _to wake up every morning.


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## timshatz (Oct 3, 2008)

It did happen a couple of time out at Cheyanne Mtn. Once was a faulty computer part, another time some joker left a training tape in the machine. 

Those are the ones we know about.


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## runningdog (Oct 3, 2008)

The moral of the tale would seem to be, if you've got good men, rely on them, not computers..........


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## pbfoot (Oct 3, 2008)

timshatz said:


> It did happen a couple of time out at Cheyanne Mtn. Once was a faulty computer part, another time some joker left a training tape in the machine.
> 
> Those are the ones we know about.


i was working when the tape got left in


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## timshatz (Oct 6, 2008)

pbfoot said:


> i was working when the tape got left in



So YOU'RE the guy...always wondered who got tagged with that one.


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## pbfoot (Oct 6, 2008)

timshatz said:


> So YOU'RE the guy...always wondered who got tagged with that one.


Nope was working tower when the order came to flush the birds ...panic


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## timshatz (Oct 6, 2008)

pbfoot said:


> Nope was working tower when the order came to flush the birds ...panic



What was the procedure for you guys (tower types) if the balloon went up? After everybody has flown the coop (aircraft that is), do you guys head for the bunkers or just sit there and wait for it? 

I think the SOP for the ship I was on was to get underway with anybody around and head down river.


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## pbfoot (Oct 6, 2008)

timshatz said:


> What was the procedure for you guys (tower types) if the balloon went up? After everybody has flown the coop (aircraft that is), do you guys head for the bunkers or just sit there and wait for it?
> 
> I think the SOP for the ship I was on was to get underway with anybody around and head down river.


wait for it you got to believe there will be aircraft to recover, diversions inbound etc , you go to a minimum crew and the rest will take up base defence duties , in the tower you tend to be the central clearing house for info , everything from noise ccomplaints to UFO's


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## timshatz (Oct 6, 2008)

Air defense? From who? Not dumping on ya', but I wonder who is going to attack a Canadian Air Base during a nuclear war? 

Just something to do, keep the troops busy? That sort of thing?


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## pbfoot (Oct 6, 2008)

timshatz said:


> Air defense? From who? Not dumping on ya', but I wonder who is going to attack a Canadian Air Base during a nuclear war?
> 
> Just something to do, keep the troops busy? That sort of thing?


we were the first line of warning for you guys the DEW line , the Pinetree Line, Mid Canada line were all radar lines across the north, and the guys were used to bolster ground defences at the base and lets not forget BMEWS. All our fighter forces are located well north and at the time were nuke armed. Remember NORAD is a binational organization, in fact during 9/11 a Canadian was the senior officer


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## timshatz (Oct 7, 2008)

Yeah, knew about Norad be binational. Did not know they used nuc armed interceptors that late in the cold war. Thought they were taken out of service in the early 70s. Makes sense the base defense is bolstered with that type of ordinance around.

What were the AAMs that used nuclear tipped warheads? What was the yield on them? Do you know any of that? Just curious. Also, did you have US interceptors up there? What type of interceptors did the Canadians use up there? Was it the Phantom?


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## kool kitty89 (Oct 10, 2008)

I think that would be the AIR-2 (air interception rocket) "Genie." AIR-2 Genie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia To my knoledge this is the only weapon of its type ever developed. (or at least the only one to be in operation use) 

The yeild was 1.5 kt, with a lethal radius of an estimated 300 m. 


The F-89, F-104, F-101/CF-101, and F-106 were capable of carrting it. (though the F-104 never did).

In the time frame you're talking about it would either be the CF-101 or F-106. (for Canada just the CF-101) After the CF-101 was retireed in 1984 (the US ANG retired the F-101 in '82), the F-106 was the last operational a/c to carry it and in 1988 that was retired from the ANG as well. (and with it, the Genie)


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## Henk (Oct 10, 2008)

Great read, thanks mate.


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## evangilder (Oct 10, 2008)

When my dad was in the Air Force, he was at KI Sawyer in the upper peninsula of Michigan at a SAGE sight ( you might have heard about SAGE, pbfoot). Sawyer had F-101Bs armed with the Genie also. I recall he called them MB-1 Genies.


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## timshatz (Oct 10, 2008)

Thanks guys, always wondered about that. Seems the kill radius was a little small for a 1.5kt bomb. 300 meters? Figured it would damage a bomber to the point of destruction at a mile. 

Just an offhand thought.


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## pbfoot (Oct 10, 2008)

Yep familiar with SAGE they had the best phone lines .
And to answer the question Tim most of visiting aircraft were targets either for our Sqn or based out of for other Sqdns occasionally , like Griffiss , or MCChord , Loring, Pease, etc it depended on the base since all but 2 years of my career were with sky heaters


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## Burmese Bandit (Dec 6, 2008)

YES - that brings back memories.. I also learned about the Petrov incident only recently, but the others, especially RYAN, I knew something about a decade ago.

I am a nondrinker, but I'll raise a glass of pseudovodka to Gospodin Petrov.


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