Terry from New York sent an email telling me about the Wounded Warrior Project which serves injured military members.

Among their projects:

They provide backpacks containing essential and comfort items for soldiers receiving traumatic medical care. They also offer patient and family support that continues even after hospital discharge.

The Wounded Warrior Project is a non-profit organization which obtains its funds through donations. For those of you looking for ways to support the troops, I heartily encourage you to visit the site and find out about the many ways they’re helping care for those who care enough to serve.

The fact that you’re alive today to read this may be due to the actions of one man.

Twenty-four years ago today, Stanislav Petrov averted nuclear disaster and prevented the start of WWIII. It was just past midnight on September 26, 1983 when Petrov, seated in the commander’s chair at a Soviet installation that monitored satellite activity, heard an alarm which signaled the U.S. had just launched a nuclear missile.

Petrov’s job as a lieutenant colonel demanded that he make a split-second decision: was this for real?

The situation was already tense on both sides of the Cold War. Just weeks before, Soviet pilots had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing 269 passengers and crew. Meanwhile, the U.S. was gearing up for Able Archer, a NATO military exercise spanning the European continent in a simulation of coordinated nuclear release.

As the alarms went off, Petrov considered his options. Soviet policy required an immediate counter-attack, but such a response would only trigger further disaster. Within minutes, millions of people would be dead.

Petrov had a hunch it was a false alarm, and yet within moments lights flashed across the screen to indicate a second missile launch. They were followed by a third, a fourth, and finally a fifth.

At this point, Petrov’s orders were to send notice to Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary of the Communist Party. He knew Andropov would order an immediate nuclear response.

Petrov considered the lack of corroboration from ground radar and held tight to his hunch that no missiles had actually been launched. Disobeying protocol, he contacted his superior officer and reported that the matter was a false alarm. If he was wrong, his decision had just ensured his country would disappear under a nuclear mushroom cloud.

Four hours later — with no missiles having materialized — interrogators arrived from Moscow. Petrov and his colleagues were grilled for three long days. The interrogators wanted to know why he hadn’t written everything down that night as it happened. They were not impressed with his explanation that he’d had a phone in one hand and an intercom in another, with no way to stop to take notes between the flurry of conversation going on.

The eventual findings: the Soviet satellite had picked up the reflection of sunlight off the tops of clouds which somehow made it appear as if the United States had launched a nuclear attack.

That’s right: the weather nearly precipitated the start of World War III, and the only reason it never came to that was because Stanislav Petrov decided to follow his hunch.

Petrov’s actions were kept secret until 1988. Even then, his heroism went largely ignored until Col. Gen. Yury Votintsev, the former commander of the Soviet Air Defense’s Missile Defense Units, published his memoirs and acknowledged Petrov’s role in preventing WWIII.

Stanislav Petrov took “early retirement” from the military and later suffered a nervous breakdown. He is currently living as a pensioner in the town of Fryazino, a science-oriented town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. He has said he does not regard himself as a hero for what he did that day.

Heads are about to roll in the U.S. Air Force thanks to a gaffe involving the transport of six nuclear warheads on a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana last week.

The warheads should have been removed from the missiles before they were attached to the B-52 bomber, according to military officials.

The crew was unaware that the plane was carrying nuclear weapons, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the extraordinary sensitivity and security surrounding the case.

The mistake was discovered after the plane’s flight to Louisiana.

I don’t know about you, but it makes me doubly nervous to think that the flight crew had no idea what they were transporting. When it comes to nuclear warheads, one would think the controls were a bit more stringent… say, that people had to sign off on the cargo list and maybe even follow some heightened security measures?

Not surprisingly, the Air Force is responding with investigations and the President has been briefed on the situation. All fighter and bomber flights will be halted on September 14 to allow for investigation. Yeah, that makes sense: let’s give ‘em a whole week to continue screwing up then investigate.

Meanwhile, the very same folks who made that brilliant decision also want to assure the U.S. population that they were never at risk since the warheads weren’t armed and they “believe” that even if the flight had crashed or the missiles had somehow fallen off the airplane’s wings the warheads would most likely have not detonated (although the conventional material within the warhead might have gone off).

Everybody feeling better now?

No?

Me, either.

For years I’ve been saying that Russia fully intends a return to the Cold War era, and I’ve been pooh-poohed by those who claim to be in the know.

So, when I saw today’s headlines reporting that Putin intends to aim missiles at Europe, I thought surely I must have managed to slip back in time while I slept. But, no. (Or is that, nyet?) It’s still 2007.

Nevertheless, the U.S. intends to set up a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, and Vladimir Putin has replied by saying that Russia will in turn aim its own missiles at Europe, too. Not surprisingly, China is siding with Russia.

The question is: do they mean it and, if so, how far is this going to go? Apparently, not very far. In the immediate wake of Putin’s remarks the Kremlin did some swift backpedaling.

The Kremlin’s spin doctors are trying hard to play down remarks made by Mr Putin about aiming his country’s missiles at Europe. They claim that he was giving a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question about America’s planned missile-defence installations in Eastern Europe. But the damage to Russia’s image as a friendly country has been done. Russian officers and officials have grumbled before about America’s sometimes cavalier attitude to strategic security. This time the combative words came from the top.

Meanwhile, President Bush insists the situation with Russia is not tense.

There must be something in the White House’s water.