Author Brian J. Morra

Blog

America’s 2021 Afghanistan Withdrawal – Lessons Not Learned?

Originally posted in History is Now Magazine in June 2024 Today, when most people think of Afghanistan, they recall the Biden administration’s calamitous withdrawal in the summer of 2021 and the end of what many have termed a ‘forever war.’ Tragically, the Taliban’s victory reversed two decades of effort to establish liberal institutions and...

read more

Mitchell Institute Policy Paper

Digital Engineering: Accelerating the Defense Acquisition & Development Cycle in an Era of Strategic Competition by Heather R. Penney Senior Resident Fellow, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies with Brian Morra Non-Resident Visiting Fellow, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Today’s Department of the Air Force (DAF) is in...

read more

When did World War III become so boring?

This month is the eighty-first anniversary of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, which triggered America’s entry into World War II.  Such events are not top of mind for most Americans.  We seem exhausted after two decades of the global war on terror.  As someone who came of age during the Cold War, I find myself asking “when did World War III become...

read more

How I Choose the Names of my Fictional Characters

I’m often asked how I choose the names of my fictional characters.  In the case of The Able Archers, people have asked me how I chose the names of the two protagonists, the American Kevin Cattani, and the Russian Ivan Levchenko I chose Kevin Cattani’s name for the following reasons: My own first name is Celtic.  My last name (Morra) is Italian...

read more

Interview by Dr. Robbin Laird: How Not to End the World

I recently sat down with Dr Robbin Laird to chat about the relevance of The Able Archers to current events in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. How Not to End the World: Brian Morra Talks About The Able Archers By Robbin Laird Recently, I reviewed the forthcoming book by Brian J. Morra, entitled The Able Archers. The novel (which I highly recommend)...

read more

Veterans Day/Series Preview

  Today is Veterans Day/Remembrance Day. I’d like to acknowledge the service of my two grandfathers, both of whom saw combat in World War I. My maternal grandfather, John Flood, served as a non-commissioned officer in the British Army through all four years of the Great War. He was gassed twice. My paternal grandfather, John Morra, was a...

read more

The Story Behind The Able Archers Dedications – Part Three

  This is the third and final blog post on the men to whom I dedicated The Able Archers. Each was responsible in an important way for preventing an escalation to world war in the fall of 1983. General Charles L. Donnelly, Jr., United States Air Force (b. 24 August 1929, d. 3 July 1994) Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, Air Defense Forces...

read more

The Story Behind The Able Archers Dedications – Part Two

This post will continue my discussion of the three men to whom I have dedicated The Able Archers. I covered General Charles Donnelly, Jr., in my last blog post and will address Lieutenant General Leonard Perroots in a future one. Today’s post is about Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov – the ‘man who saved the world’. Lieutenant Colonel...

read more