Tag: US Navy

Steve Murphy

February 27, 2025 / ravenchair

As a writer, Steve has three published novels through Falstaff Books with co-writer Paul Barrett, a fourth currently undergoing developmental edits and three more in the works. Paul and Steve have also written several screenplays, many of which have placed highly in national competitions.

Steve has spent much of his life in uniform, starting with four years in the Navy as a GMM (Gunners Mate Missiles)—earning the Navy Expeditionary Medal and Navy Unit Commendation. This was followed by two years in the Army where he worked as a forward observer. Steve then became a police officer in Charlotte, NC, where he spent twenty-three years; fourteen of those years he was on the SWAT team, nine of which he worked as a sniper.

Steve is not a stranger to film production, having worked as a military/law consultant on several projects, a set dresser for films, and a lighting technician in live theater. But his main strength is in project management and ensuring the producers stay on target and time and helping deal with any problems that come up with the crew. In addition, his knowledge of military protocol and interest in military history help maintain verisimilitude in all the military aspects on any project.

The father of two adult boys, Steve lives on a small farm in North Carolina with his wife, two dogs, and an elusive cat.

Dennis M. Myers

February 27, 2025 / ravenchair

Born and raised in central Minnesota, Dennis M. Myers developed a serious reading habit early in life due to the influence of his grandmother. In late high school he read one particularly “awful” book and, with all that teenage hubris, decided that he could do better.

After spending a decade in the United States Navy as a submarine sailor, teaching younger sailors, and writing adventures for Challenge Magazine, he settled in Virginia. The next two decades found him writing down story ideas, compiling his thoughts on the universe, and dealing with all the disasters of life. He eventually compiled the ideas he had been saving into a timeline spanning several thousand years. In 2017 the opportunity came to write full time for several months. With the full support of his wonderful wife, May, he began the book that is now known as Final Assembly, the first of four novels in his series, Rise of the Automated Empire. All four are available on Amazon.

Dennis’s novel, Broken Trust, is a finalist for this year’s Webster Award.

Phillip Pournelle

February 26, 2025 / ravenchair

Phillip Pournelle is a science fiction author, war game designer, operations analyst, and military strategist. He served in the United States Navy as a surface warfare officer, operations analyst, and planner for 26 years. He served on cruisers, destroyers, amphibious ships, and on an experimental high-speed vessel. He served on the Navy Staff conducting campaign analysis, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense doing mobility and naval analysis. He worked for five years at the Office of Net Assessment diagnosing the future of conflict and competition. He designs and executes war games, conducts modeling and simulation, and analysis on modern warfare for the Department of Defense and other organizations. He has written and spoken on the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in warfare. He is currently a senior war game designer and operations analyst at Group W, a defense and analysis, modeling, and research company. He teaches war game design for the Military Operations Research Society. He wrote a chapter on the use of war gaming, modeling, and simulation in the book Wargaming and Simulation published by Wiley Press in 2022. He contributed to Jerry Pournelle’s last Janissaries novel Mamelukes and recently submitted the second draft of the sequel to Baen books. He has had several short stories and articles published on the themes of future conflicts. His latest short story “The Rules of the Game” was published by Baen Books in the Robosoldiers anthology.