Posted on 03/27/2016 8:19:17 PM PDT by daniel1212
Temperament matters...The world owes an enormous debt to a quiet, steady Russian naval officer...
It’s October 1962, the height of the Cuban missile crisis, and there’s a Soviet submarine in the Caribbean that’s been spotted by the American Navy..
The sub is hiding in the ocean, and the Americans are dropping depth charges left and right of the hull. Inside, the sub is rocking, shaking with each new explosion. What the Americans don’t know is that this sub has a tactical nuclear torpedo on board, available to launch,...
The Russian in question, an exhausted, nervous submarine commander named Valentin Savitsky, decided to do it. He ordered the nuclear-tipped missile readied. His second in command approved the order. Moscow hadn’t communicated with its sub for days. Eleven U.S. Navy ships were nearby, all possible targets. The nuke on this missile had roughly the power of the bomb at Hiroshima... But it didn’t happen, because that’s when Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov steps into the story... The exact details are controversial. The way it’s usually told is that each of the three Soviet submarine captains in the ocean around Cuba had the power to launch a nuclear torpedo if—and only if—he had the consent of all three senior officers on board. On his sub, Savitsky gave the order and got one supporting vote, but Arkhipov balked. He wouldn’t go along...
Dropping depth charges left then right, noisy but always off target—those are signals, Arkhipov argued. They say, We know you’re there. Identify yourselves. Come up and talk. We intend no harm.
The Russian crew couldn’t tell what was going on above them: They’d gone silent well before the crisis began. Their original orders were to go directly to Cuba, but then, without explanation, they’d been ordered to stop and wait in the Caribbean...
As the drama unfolded, Kennedy worried that the Russians would mistake depth charges for an attack. When his defense secretary said the U.S. was dropping “grenade”-size signals over the subs, the president winced..
The debate between the captain and Arkhipov took place in an old, diesel-powered submarine designed for Arctic travel but stuck in a climate that was close to unendurable. And yet, Arkhipov kept his cool. After their confrontation, the missile was not readied for firing. Instead, the Russian sub rose to the surface, where it was met by a U.S. destroyer. The Americans didn’t board...Instead, the Russians turned away from Cuba and headed north, back to Russia
Arkhopov was already a Soviet hero. A year earlier he’d been on another Soviet sub, the K-19, when the coolant system failed and the onboard nuclear reactor was in danger of meltdown. With no backup system, the captain ordered the crew to jerry-rig a repair, and Arkhopov, among others, got exposed to high levels of radiation. Twenty-two crew members died from radiation sickness over the next two years. Arkhipov wouldn’t die until 1998, but it would be from kidney cancer, brought on, it’s said, by exposure. - http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/25/you-and-almost-everyone-you-know-owe-your-life-to-this-man/
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
Ping. What would _ have done?
There were more close calls than any of us will every know. Only by the Grace of God . . . .
Interesting story.
taken a Xanax the size of a horse pill!
I remember being in Rockefeller Plaza working when an announcement came that something bad was in the vents.
it was around the time of the anthrax scares.
My stomach sank into my feet.
After about 10 minutes, I went and got a bunch of sodas and snacks for the department from the vending machine.
A lot of people went straight to their doctor to get some potent antibiotic, I forget what it was called.
I just went home. And I’m still here :)
I’m picturing Sean Connery in Hunt for Red October.
Indeed. One of them :
It was September 26, 1983. Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defence Forces, was on duty at Serpukhov-15, a secret bunker outside Moscow. His job: to monitor Oko, the Soviet Union's early-warning system for nuclear attack. And then to pass along any alerts to his superiors. It was just after midnight when the alarm bells began sounding. One of the system's satellites had detected that the United States had launched five ballistic missiles. And they were heading toward the USSR. Electronic maps flashed; bells screamed; reports streamed in. A back-lit red screen flashed the word 'LAUNCH.'"
Petrov, however, had a hunch -- "a funny feeling in my gut," he would later recall -- that the alarm ringing through the bunker was a false one. It was an intuition that was based on common sense: The alarm indicated that only five missiles were headed toward the USSR. Had the U.S. actually been launching a nuclear attack, however, Petrov figured, it would be extensive -- much more, certainly, than five. Soviet ground radar, meanwhile, had failed to pick up corroborative evidence of incoming missiles -- even after several minutes had elapsed. The larger matter, however, was that Petrov didn't fully trust the accuracy of the Soviet technology when it came to bomb-detection. He would later describe the alert system as "raw."..He reported the satellite's detection to his superiors -- but, crucially, as a false alarm. - He reported the satellite's detection to his superiors -- but, crucially, as a false alarm.
Just found video version of this post: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-man-who-saved-the-world-watch-the-full-episode/905/
BMK
It was cipro (ciprofloxacin), for use against anthrax. I got an Rx for it, and stored it in my freezer, “just in case”.
Cipro!!!
thanks :) only 47 and memory shot!
good idea.
Your story is similar to one recently written this week happening in Syria..... A Russian Soldier, similar to our Navy Seals, was on the ground spotting ISIS locations for Russian pilots to bomb......he found himself being surrounded by ISIS soldiers and yet called in the coordinates anyway knowing all to well that would mean his own certain death....he sacrificed his life for his mission to destroy these evil people..
bkmk
probably Cipro
As an interesting side note: Perhaps someone could verify my memory, but it seem I read somewhere those “grenade” Signals were simple hand grenades, with varying amounts of toilet paper wrapped around the grenade handle with the pin pulled, so that the more toilet paper wrapped the deeper it would go before exploding, giving depth control.
Those born after Roe v Wade went into effect can only thank GOD that they were NOT one of the approximately 25% of similar fetuses (Human beings) KILLED by CHOICE since that fateful day over 40 years ago.
Will there EVER be a Man or Woman who will put an end to THIS horror?
If true, like Samson,
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