The Man Who Saved the World

In September of 1983, Stanislav Petrov was a Russian officer stationed at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that nukes had been launched from the US, and they were heading straight for Russia. Military policy dictated that he immediately launch a counter attack. He had a few minutes to make a decision.

Under this intense pressure he came to the very logical conclusion that if the US had really initiated a nuclear attack, they would have launched much more than five missiles. His decision is commonly accepted to have averted nuclear war. Quite simply he saved the world.

I wanted to do a T-shirt to commemorate this guy. If it weren't for his cool headed thinking I probably wouldn't have been born.