Ron -- Not all Warrant Officers are created equal -- Army warrants and Marine Corps Warrant Officers are two *very* different officers. My cousin is a retired Army CWO-5 and served two combat tours in SEA flying Little Birds (he's never been a terribly sane man ... Most pilots try to *avoid* trees ...
). He then flew in the AL National Guard while being a civilian helo instructor pilot at Ft Rucker.
From my understanding, Army warrants usually have an associate degree and then go to Mother Rucker for their training. And then ALL they do is fly. Just get in the seat and wiggle the sticks for 20 years. Day in and day out. Fly, fly, fly. Nothing else. No "shore" tours (away from flying). Not many collateral duties. Just fly. And then go fly some more. Did you ever meet an Army CWO who *wasn't* a pilot? Do they even exist?
Marine Corps *Chief* Warrant Officers (if you want to believe Rusty or NAPCOMan...) are Deities (Just plain Warrant officers, WO-1s, are slime like the rest of us). We all bow in reverence when one passes. They are (usually...) Staff Sergeants (E-6) or SSgt Selectees (on the promotion list but not yet promoted) before they can be selected for Warrant Officer (and earned their chops in their MOS). And out in the Fleet, USMC Chief Warrant Officers usually hold Company Grade Officer positions (lt/Capt) positions in which you want someone with a lot of experience and skill that a Lt or Capt will not have, but the position does not require a Field Grade officer (Maj/LtCol/Col -- i.e., a lobotomized officer). In the Marine Corps, I have always found Chief Warrant Officers to be real Leadership "force multipliers/torque amplifiers" ... IF one could tolerate their "saltiness" ...
.
Thus I thought it a shame when HQMC, in it's "infinite wisdom" disestablished the CWO rank in a lot of MOS's, including mine -- it denied us the ability to put very talented and experienced Marines out in the field in jobs like leading MEU PA detachments, Combat Camera crews, etc. Instead they had to do that with Marines like myself -- exceptionally talented and ruggedly handsome, just lacking the experience ...
. Maybe it was just me, but I seemed to detect an absence of awe and reverence when my Marines would address me as "Lt ..." as compared to when they said "Chief Warrant Officer ..."
I would tell you more about the ordinance CWO's (the ones who wear the bursting bomb on their one collar instead of a rank insignia) -- They are called "Gunner." ... but ... NAPCOMan is probably monitoring this thread and today would be a rather inconvenient day for me to spend the rest of it in the ICU ... Suffice it to say that some/a lot of Marines mistakenly call all CWO's "Gunners." The non ordy CWOs will not correct you and just accept the compliment. The REAL Gunners will drop you in your tracks (instead of politely correcting you ...) if they catch you making that faux pas.
So, in short, if you want to go somewhere in a helicopter (and actually arrive safely), choose an Army Warrant Officer.
If you need someone with a crapload of broad real world experience, skill and professionalism (and you don't have any PAO Captains handy ...
) And you've turned your BS detector off, go with a Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer.
Semper Fi,
John
