diff --git a/.github/setBranchName.sh b/.github/setBranchName.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..00ffd55ffe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/setBranchName.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+GITHUB_REFNAME="${1}"
+
+[ -z "${GITHUB_REFNAME}" ] && echo "Error setting branch name.  No input given." && exit 1
+
+case ${GITHUB_REFNAME} in
+  $([[ "$GITHUB_REFNAME" =~ ^dependabot/.* ]] && echo ${GITHUB_REFNAME}))
+    echo ${GITHUB_REFNAME} | md5sum | head -c 10 | sed 's/^/x/'
+    ;;
+  $([[ "$GITHUB_REFNAME" =~ ^snyk-* ]] && echo ${GITHUB_REFNAME}))
+    echo ${GITHUB_REFNAME##*-} | head -c 10 | sed 's/^/s/'
+    ;;
+  *)
+    echo ${GITHUB_REFNAME}
+    ;;
+esac
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/waf-controller.sh b/.github/waf-controller.sh
index 6f57206b0b..3bdd242e38 100755
--- a/.github/waf-controller.sh
+++ b/.github/waf-controller.sh
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ for ((i=1; i <= $CIRCUIT_BREAKER; i++)); do
     [[ $CMD_CD -eq $AWS_RETRY_ERROR ]] || break
 
     SLEEP_FOR=$(jitter ${j})
-    echo "CLI retries exceed.  Waiting for ${SLEEP_FOR} seconds to execute read again...$({j})"
+    echo "CLI retries exceed.  Waiting for ${SLEEP_FOR} seconds to execute read again...(${j})"
     sleep ${SLEEP_FOR}
   done
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/deploy.yml b/.github/workflows/deploy.yml
index 2cc84ab594..0262cca41c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/deploy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/deploy.yml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ on:
       - "!skipci*"
 
 concurrency:
-  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
+  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref_name }}
 
 permissions:
   id-token: write
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ jobs:
   unit-tests:
     name: Unit Tests
     uses: ./.github/workflows/unittest-workflow.yml
-    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/master'
+    if: github.ref_name == 'master'
     secrets:
       CODE_CLIMATE_ID: ${{ secrets.CODE_CLIMATE_ID }}
   deploy:
@@ -27,17 +27,11 @@ jobs:
     env:
       SLS_DEPRECATION_DISABLE: "*" # Turn off deprecation warnings in the pipeline
     steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: set branch_name # Some integrations (Dependabot & Snyk) build very long branch names. This is a switch to make long branch names shorter.
         run: |
-          echo "GITHUB_REF=${GITHUB_REF}"        
-          if [[ "$GITHUB_REF" =~ ^refs/heads/dependabot/.* ]]; then
-            echo "branch_name=`echo ${GITHUB_REF##*/*-} | md5sum | head -c 10 | sed 's/^/x/'`" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          elif [[ "$GITHUB_REF" =~ ^refs/.*/snyk-* ]]; then
-            echo "branch_name=`echo ${GITHUB_REF##*/*-} | head -c 10 | sed 's/^/s/'`" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          else
-            echo "branch_name=${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          fi
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+          BRANCH_NAME=$(./.github/setBranchName.sh ${{ github.ref_name }})
+          echo "branch_name=${BRANCH_NAME}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
       - name: 'Setup jq'
         uses: dcarbone/install-jq-action@v2.1.0
         with:
@@ -95,7 +89,7 @@ jobs:
   # run e2e tests after deploy completes
   e2e-tests-init:
     name: Initialize End To End Tests
-    if: ${{ github.ref != 'refs/heads/master' && github.ref != 'refs/heads/val' && github.ref != 'refs/heads/prod' }}
+    if: ${{ github.ref_name != 'master' && github.ref_name != 'val' && github.ref_name != 'prod' }}
     needs:
       - deploy
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -105,17 +99,11 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           echo "No endpoint set, Check if the deploy workflow was successful."
           exit 1
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: set branch_name
         run: |
-          echo "GITHUB_REF=${GITHUB_REF}"        
-          if [[ "$GITHUB_REF" =~ ^refs/heads/dependabot/.* ]]; then
-            echo "branch_name=`echo ${GITHUB_REF##*/*-} | md5sum | head -c 10 | sed 's/^/x/'`" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          elif [[ "$GITHUB_REF" =~ ^refs/.*/snyk-* ]]; then
-            echo "branch_name=`echo ${GITHUB_REF##*/*-} | head -c 10 | sed 's/^/s/'`" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          else
-            echo "branch_name=${GITHUB_REF#refs/heads/}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          fi
+          BRANCH_NAME=$(./.github/setBranchName.sh ${{ github.ref_name }})
+          echo "branch_name=${BRANCH_NAME}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
       - name: set branch specific variable names
         id: set_names
         run: ./.github/build_vars.sh set_names
@@ -327,7 +315,7 @@ jobs:
     env:
       SLS_DEPRECATION_DISABLE: "*" # Turn off deprecation warnings in the pipeline
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: Configure AWS credentials for GitHub Actions
         uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
         with:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/destroy.yml b/.github/workflows/destroy.yml
index f9f5ef5066..08ee56abd1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/destroy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/destroy.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 name: Destroy
 
-on: delete
+on: 
+  delete:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      environment:
+        description: "Name of the environment to destroy:"
+        required: true
 
 permissions:
   id-token: write
@@ -14,17 +20,23 @@ jobs:
     # This conditional is a backup mechanism to help prevent mistakes from becoming disasters.
     # This is a list of branch names that are commonly used for protected branches/environments.
     # Add/remove names from this list as appropriate.
-    if: github.event.ref_type == 'branch' && !contains(fromJson('["master", "val", "prod"]'), github.event.ref)
+    if: |
+      (
+        github.event.ref_type == 'branch' &&
+        (!startsWith(github.event.ref, 'skipci')) &&
+        (!contains(fromJson('["master", "val", "prod"]'), github.event.ref))
+      ) ||
+      (
+        inputs.environment != '' &&
+        (!contains(fromJson('["master", "val", "prod"]'), inputs.environment))
+      )
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - name: set branch_name
         run: |
-          if [[ "${{ github.event.ref }}" =~ ^dependabot/.* ]]; then # Dependabot builds very long branch names.  This is a switch to make it shorter.
-            echo "branch_name=`echo ${{ github.event.ref }} | md5sum | head -c 10 | sed 's/^/x/'`" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          else
-            echo "branch_name=${{ github.event.ref }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          fi
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+          BRANCH_NAME=$(./.github/setBranchName.sh ${{ inputs.environment || github.event.ref }})
+          echo "branch_name=${BRANCH_NAME}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
       - name: set branch specific variable names
         run: ./.github/build_vars.sh set_names
       - name: set variable values
diff --git a/destroy.sh b/destroy.sh
index 6ada321564..615ec57db0 100755
--- a/destroy.sh
+++ b/destroy.sh
@@ -35,6 +35,16 @@ set -e
 # Find cloudformation stacks associated with stage
 stackList=(`aws cloudformation describe-stacks | jq -r ".Stacks[] | select(.Tags[] | select(.Key==\"STAGE\") | select(.Value==\"$stage\")) | .StackName"`)
 
+if [ ${#stackList[@]} -eq 0 ]; then
+    echo """
+      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+      ERROR: No stacks were identified for destruction
+      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+      Please verify the stage name:  $stage
+    """
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 # Find buckets attached to any of the stages, so we can empty them before removal.
 bucketList=()
 set +e