Yup in 1983. Thanks to both of them. Petrov is still alive, so you can send him a Hallmark card if you're over 30 and glad to be alive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

Or if you are under 30 and glad to have been born. :)

Do you have his address?

The thread is two years old, but it is a start. Let me know if you have any luck. BTW, someone in the Reddit thread points out that cash sent through the mail _will_ be stolen, so if anyone wanted to send him money, we'd have to me more clever about it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/dkear/can_anyone_...

Yes, when I first read the story I was kind of scared when thinking what could happen if he would just think "my duty is to pass the warning, higher ups would sort it out". Now of course everybody says "we'd caught it up anyway", but who knows what would actually happen.

It's said that Able Archer 83 was the turning point in US thinking on the cold war.

Before this exercise Reagan actually believed that the USSR thought the US was too good and wholesome to ever launch a first strike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

There's a pretty extensive (if unrealistic) online alternative history around this incident: http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/1983:_Doomsday

If the Wikipedia article is accurate, that is one wonderfully humble man.