THE DAY THE WORLD ALMOST ENDED
Shall we play a game?
On the morning of September 26th, 1983, the Soviet Union's early warning system detected a missile launch from the United States. Proper protocol for such a warning was for officer Stanislav Petrov to report the warning to his superiors so a retaliation strike could be conducted before the missiles reached Russia. Mutually assured destruction.
Petrov, however, believed this to be a detecting malfunction and made the bold decision to ignore the warning and not report it, even though it might be seen as a dereliction of his duty. In doing so, Petrov may have saved the entire world. "I had all the data. If I had sent my report up the chain of command, nobody would have said a word against it," he later told the BBC 30 years later. Had he sent up his report, the missiles would have been fired.
It was later learned that the system had malfunctioned, though Petrov wasn't entirely sure at the time. The man had listened to a gut instinct and decided against duty. He could have easily passed up the information, as ordered, and let it be the higher ups problem. But Petrov listened to his hunch and saved countless lives in doing so.
In a position with zero room for error, I'm glad Stanislav Petrov was on duty that day, a sentiment that he shares as well. "My colleagues were all professional soldiers, they were taught to give and obey orders," he told BBC. "That was my job, but they were lucky it was me on shift that night."
I think the world was lucky Petrov was on shift that night! Here's a fun little thought experiment for you to take home with you today. How often do you think disasters like this were narrowly missed? Might be best not to think about it. Therein lies madness!
If you enjoyed this month's creepy thing, please leave me a comment below! And be sure to check out all of what Camp Bondfire has to offer. If you enjoyed this post and want more words of mine to glance at, I also write books! Fiction books in the thriller/suspense and horror category. Go ahead and check them out and I'll see you next month for another creepy thing!
