Military Officers - Warrant Officers

Warrant Officers

In some branches of many armed forces there exists a third grade of officer known as a warrant officer. In the armed forces of the United States, warrant officers are initially appointed by the Secretary of the service and then commissioned by the President of the United States upon promotion to chief warrant officer. In many other countries (as in the armed forces of the Commonwealth nations), warrant officers fill the role of very senior non-commissioned officers. Their position is affirmed by warrant from the bureaucracy directing the force - for example, the position of Regimental Sergeant Major in regiments of the British Army is held by a warrant officer appointed by the British Government.

In the US military, a warrant officer is a technically focused, single specialty officer - helicopter pilots and IT specialists of the US Army, for example. They are given salutes and they are addressed as Mr, Ms, Mrs, Sir, or Ma'am. There are no warrant officers in the U.S. Air Force (the ranks exist, but go permanently and completely unfilled), but each of the other U.S. Armed Forces have warrant officers — though each warrant accession program is unique to the individual service's needs. Because warrant officers normally have more years in service than regular commissioned officer counterparts, their pay is often slightly more than regular commissioned officers. In the United States armed forces, commissioned officers and commissioned warrant officers are the only officers allowed to command units.