Thursday, 8 February 2024

Warrant Officers?

I sat and read over a Air Force story today....Air Force Headquarters in reviewing this crazy idea.....bringing back warrant officers (WOs), and possibly creating the claass training program by the end of 2024.  

How long have the WOs been gone?  Sixty-five years.

What happened?  Well....the Air Force came to realize that Congress was looking at trimming officer billets, and figured....lets dump the WOs.....enlarge senior enlisted billets and junior officer billets.

What made WOs different?  They were typically people with 2-year degrees (minimum), and a minimum of four years of service as a enlisted guy.   They stayed in their field....meaning you didn't go off and do work unrelated to your training.

Why this change now?  Well....getting NCOs to stay in past 20, and recruiting enlisted and college folks....is near impossible. 

Will cargo pilot positions mostly go to WOs?  That's one of the curious things I see coming.....where a quarter to half of such officer billets will be WO (when the smoke clears).

I'll even predict that virtually all of the Predator piloting....goes to WOs in the future.