Warrant Officers (Split from Missing career paths)

[chico20854]

(Kato - can we split this to a new thread on Warrant Officers???)

One thought I have on the Warrant Officers - first term soldiers. I believe that, in reality if not in regulation, that its pretty much impossible for a first term soldier to become a US Army warrant officer in any field outside aviation. It relates to the "nature of the beast" - a warrant officer is generally a highly skilled technician, who's skill level is such that his career path demands that he continue to practice that skill (rather than leadership per se) but needs to be compensated (financially, status and otherwise) at a higher level than a NCO. My experience with logistics, military intelligence and maintenance warrant officers in the US Army was that the Army had taken the best supply sergeants, interrogators/analysts and mechanics in the Army and made them warrant officers. They uniformly impressed me as being the most competent soldiers I met, so good that at times it seemed as if they had magical powers. (One MI warrant I knew could open any lock on the planet in under 30 seconds...) But generally the requirements to apply for warrant officer school in non-aviation fields are that the applicant be a NCO in a related field, possibly E-6, I don't recall...

Aviation is a bit different, where the Army needs large quantities of highly skilled people - helicopter pilots - without them needing to exercise command authority, and where there isn't a skill path that leads progressively towards it. As a result, first-term soldiers are eligible.

The USMC runs their process a little differently. Law went through it in the last year or two. He is an infantry warrant officer - his job (as all infantry WO's) is to serve as an infantry battalion commander's weapons and tactics advisor, proficient in all the weapons systems the battalion fields. His training (after completing warrant officer school and after 15+ years as an infantryman including time as a company first sergeant) included pretty much every infantry skill school the USMC offers - rocket launcher crewman, sniper-scout platoon leaders course, mortarman course, AT gunner course, foreign weapons, etc. The US Army doesn't do this because the NCO corps usually fills this role, but the USMC assigns senior NCOs irrespective of MOS (everyone is a rifleman and leading Marines is leading Marines) so its possible to have an infantry battalion sergeant major that spent his entire career on the flight line. The USMC also has technical warrant officers like the Army, I have a friend that's a USMC firefighter warrant officer!