Stanislav Petrov, 77, passed away on May 19, 2017. His death in his home in the Moscow suburbs was little noted at the time. Petrov, however, is one of a few humans who can say they literally saved the world. The veteran was a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Union Air Defense Forces. On Sept. 26, 1983, the Soviets' early-warning nuclear missile detection system was triggered. The system said the United States had fired five ballistic missiles at the Soviet Union. Petrov was the duty officer at the co
