Petition to Bring Back Air Force Warrant Officers

[SlightlyCatholic]

So I found this online at http://www.petitiononline.com/usafwo1/petition.html:

"To: Secretary of the Air Force
As you know, the U.S. Air Force is the only branch of the United States Military that does not have the Warrant Officer ranks. We feel that this is unfair to the members of the Air Force, who work just as hard as members of the other branches, and can obtain the same degrees. In the other branches, an Enlisted member can obtain an Associates Degree in an approved field, and have experience in that field, and request training as a Warrant Officer. In the Air Force, the only step up for Enlisted members is to get a full Bachelors Degree, and apply for OTS, which has a very long waiting period, due to that being the only option. Because of this, the Air Force is losing out on very skilled personnel to be helicopter pilots, bomber air crews, etc.

There are currently Enlisted members who would gladly go to Warrant Officer training, and who are more than qualified for those ranks. There are Staff Sergeants with 2 associates degrees, a bachelors and working on their masters degrees, who can not go to OTS, as there is no room, who would be perfect candidates for Warrant Officer, and not need retraining for new specialty.

By instating the Warrant Officer ranks, it will show the Enlisted members of the U.S. Air Force that they can advance beyond the Enlisted ranks, and show their leadership abilities.

We ask that you, the Secretary of the Air Force, work to bring the Warrant Officer ranks to the Air Force.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned"

Besides the fact that it seems a little sketchy, I thought it was odd that a signed petition was being used in an organization that runs on hierarchy. Our military isn't a democracy!

Anyway, I just wanted all of your opinions on this (especially AF people). Thanks and God bless.

[ang1sgt]

HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHH! LMAO!

Tim,

You need to read Military History and understand why the USAF did away with these grades and also why the SUPER GRADES were made for the SNCO's. The Senior NCO took the job of the technical and administrative functions of the Warrants. I agree with those reasons from the late 60's and early 70's. If the USAF still had non rated flyers in Helos, it might work in those cases.

Some side note information:
The United States Air Force no longer employs warrant officers. The USAF inherited warrant officer ranks from the Army at its inception in 1947, but their place in the Air Force structure was never made clear. When Congress authorized the creation of two new senior enlisted ranks in 1958, Air Force officials privately concluded that these two new "super grades" could fill all Air Force needs then performed at the warrant officer level, although this was not publicly acknowledged until years later. The Air Force stopped appointing warrant officers in 1959,[2] the same year the first promotions were made to the new top enlisted grade, Chief Master Sergeant. Most of the existing Air Force warrant officers entered the commissioned officer ranks during the 1960s, but tiny numbers continued to exist for the next 21 years.

The last active duty Air Force warrant officer, CWO-4 James H. Long, retired in 1980 and the last Air Force Reserve warrant officer, CWO-4 Bob Barrow, retired in 1992. Upon his retirement, he was honorarily promoted to CWO-5.[2] Since then, the Air Force warrant officer ranks, while still authorized by law, are not used.

[SlightlyCatholic]

Thanks for clearing that up, TOP. I had tried to do some research on Air Force Warrants but the only thing I could come up with is the fact that there aren't any.

[ang1sgt]

Tim,

I actually aspired to be one in the early part of my career. They still taught that rank structure at Basic through the mid 70's. So being young and new to the service I thought that could be one of my ways to bigger and greater things. When I finally got around to asking about it is when I got the straight skinny from a Chief Master Sergeant.

[BronzeGoat]

With the Air Force's push to develop a wider-ranging UAV program that doesn't strip pilots out of their cockpits, it would seem the USAF could use warrants to fill UAV pilot positions. Since the Air Force doesn't want to use enlisted personnel to fly what is in essence a very large remote control airplane, why not use warrant officers? That way they wouldn't have commissioned pilots sullying their hands with UAVs, and they wouldn't have enlisted hands doing anything that even remotely resembles flying.

Before I get flamed, that was sarcasm. But it does seem that USAF warrants could be used effectively in this manner on the modern battlefield.