Pentagon To Disband ‘Useless’ Warrant Officer Corps

[Subdeacon Joe]

“Instead of hurting all of our citizen soldiers who are doing actual work, why not just trim the fat by cutting thousands of useless warrant officers?” said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. “And I literally mean fat. This study I have here shows more than 65 percent of warrants are overweight and none of the others can score above 50 percent on their PT tests.”

 

The House Armed Services Committee voted unanimously to completely eliminate the position of warrant officer from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, and sent the measure to the full House for a vote on Friday.

 

At press time, The Fraternal Order of Warrant Officers announced a plan for a mass protest formation outside the Capital Building this morning, but none of them showed up.

[Utah Bob #35998]

Source?

 

Never mind, I found it. The Duffle Blog. :lol:

 

“I simply don’t understand the purpose of these warrant officers,” said Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). “They hang around the company with their hands in their pockets. And God help you if the commander tells them to do something. They’ll just look around, make excuses why they can’t sign the hand receipt and then blame whatever goes wrong on the nearest lieutenant.”

 

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

As a retired US Army warrant officer this saddens me. I don't know what has happened since I retired in 1989, but back then I felt like warrants served an essential position in the Army. We were the narrowly trained subject matter experts, whereas the commissioned officers were broadly branch trained. I was in the Air Defense Artillery branch with my specialty being HAWK Systems Maintenance. I supervised five separate sections consisting of 40-50 maintenance technicians which were responsible for keeping a HAWK missile battery maintained and operational. I often found myself as the battery commander's sounding board and advisor concerning other matters as well.

 

When I was a warrant, there were commissioned officers (and some E8s & E9s) that thought the warrant officer corps was unnecessary. But those officers generally had not served closely with warrants or were in a theater where their bread was not buttered by them. I found that those officers who had served with me in Germany or Korea, where the batteries were on 24-7 vigilance status and system availability time was critical, they appreciated warrants and thought warrants critical. But, maybe things have changed since I served. I don't know but I am deeply saddened.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Source?

 

Never mind, I found it. The Duffle Blog. :lol:

 

 

 

 

As a retired US Army warrant officer this saddens me. I don't know what has happened since I retired in 1989, but back then I felt like warrants served an essential position in the Army. We were the narrowly trained subject matter experts, whereas the commissioned officers were broadly branch trained. I was in the Air Defense Artillery branch with my specialty being HAWK Systems Maintenance. I supervised five separate sections consisting of 40-50 maintenance technicians which were responsible for keeping a HAWK missile battery maintained and operational. I often found myself as the battery commander's sounding board and advisor concerning other matters as well.

 

When I was a warrant, there were commissioned officers (and some E8s & E9s) that thought the warrant officer corps was unnecessary. But those officers generally had not served closely with warrants or were in a theater where their bread was not buttered by them. I found that those officers who had served with me in Germany or Korea, where the batteries were on 24-7 vigilance status and system availability time was critical, they appreciated warrants and thought warrants critical. But, maybe things have changed since I served. I don't know but I am deeply saddened.

 

Birdgun musta been composing while Bob was sending!

[Noz]

When I was a 2nd Lt in the Artillery I was informed that God was a W4. I believed.

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

What is a Warrant Officer?

 

Down in the fox holes, we never saw one.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Nothing like throwing out a wonderful resource to further a political agenda.

 

How many of these "professional politicians" (and by the time they get to the Pentagon most are politicians instead of military people) are worth a good Warrant Officer..... or how many dozen are worth one good Warrant Officer

[DocWard]

I have a couple of friends (one a Warrant Officer) that I need to send this to. They will get good laughs. The Warrant flies helicopters, and the last I saw him was still one of the most physically fit guys I knew.

 

Funny thing, we has a physician's assistant in one of my old units that was a Warrant Officer. The powers-that-be decreed that PAs would become officers. So with time in service and his grade as a warrant (CW4, if I recall), and everything else, he became a Major. It seemed he immediately climbed in the handbasket headed down.

[Trailrider #896]

When I was in the Air Force, we had only one warrant officer on my base, a finance specialist. As I recall (1965-69), USAF didn't have many, and we seemed to get along with either commissioned officers or EM's (certainly including NCO's). OTOH, the other branches have made incredible utilization of WO's, especially flying helos in 'Nam! Those troops were purpose-trained, though I suppose a properly selected and trained EM could certainly fly a helo or fixed-wing. After all, the Army Air Corps and Marines (IIRC) had flying sergeants in early WWII, and the Imperial Japanese Navy's best pilots (until we shot them down through sheer force of numbers and improved planes) were enlisted.

 

What really irrigates me is the way Hagel put his opinion! Not that I would expect more from the likes of this Administration!

[Elk Creek LeMieux]

Just to put it out there... Nothing on the duffel blog (the source of this article) is truthful or serious.

 

It's a fake military news column, written as pure humor.

 

I might be ruining someone's fun here, haha, but the Warrant Officer Corp is not going anywhere.

 

P.S. Anyone who's been in any branch of the military will get a good laugh outa some of the articles on that site.

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

My hunting partner and former neighbor, when I lived in Detroit, was a Huey pilot in Nam. I lost track of him when I moved

out here but he shows up for my 39th birthday with a bottle and we had a great time. He served as a WO but I do not know his grade. That is about all I know about WOs. Last I heard of him, he was living in Jawja.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Just to put it out there... Nothing on the duffel blog (the source of this article) is truthful or serious.

 

It's a fake military news column, written as pure humor.

 

I might be ruining someone's fun here, haha, but the Warrant Officer Corp is not going anywhere.

 

P.S. Anyone who's been in any branch of the military will get a good laugh outa some of the articles on that site.

Bob got it, and right quickly, too. Before he finished his post asking for the source he noticed it was DuffleBlog. And posted that it was from DuffleBlog.

 

One of the marks of good satire it that it sounds real.

 

 

 

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

I will add that there is a difference between pilot warrant officers and technical warrant officers. During my time in the Army there was the "high school to flight school" warrant officers that flew helicopters. These were usually men with very little time in service. Myself, when I pinned on my warrant officer bar, I had 15 years of service and 3.5 years time in grade as an E7 Sergeant First Class. Although I had a full year of schooling at Fort Bliss to become a HAWK warrant, I did not go to Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOC). My class had five senior E6s and four E7s. To be accepted, we all had to have had several years in HAWK maintenance and had to have been a section chief. Experience in maintenance and the HAWK system was number one criteria. When WOC came out, the emphasis seemed to change to younger, less experienced personnel.

[Utah Bob #35998]

For those of you who haven't read all the posts and now have an elevated BP OF 500/195.................IT'S A JOKE!~!

[Subdeacon Joe]

For those of you who haven't read all the posts and now have an elevated BP OF 500/195.................IT'S A JOKE!~!

 

Duffle Blog, The Onion, The Daily Current - if you see anything from these sources you know it is satire/humor. And usually with just enough truth to make it plausible.

 

There are a fair number of other satire/spoof sites out there. If you think something is way out of like, check the "About Us" tab on a site.

 

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

Even Hagel isn't that stupid.

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

Thanks guys. I was not aware Duffle Blog was a spoof sight. I figured it out after Subdeacon Joe wrote just below my first post: "Birdgun musta been composing while Bob was sending!" Would have made a good April Fool's joke. I just may save this until next 1 April 2015 for some of my other retired warrant officer buddies.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Even Hagel isn't that stupid.

 

Um........

[Amarillo Rattler]

As a retired US Army warrant officer this saddens me. I don't know what has happened since I retired in 1989, but back then I felt like warrants served an essential position in the Army. We were the narrowly trained subject matter experts, whereas the commissioned officers were broadly branch trained. I was in the Air Defense Artillery branch with my specialty being HAWK Systems Maintenance. I supervised five separate sections consisting of 40-50 maintenance technicians which were responsible for keeping a HAWK missile battery maintained and operational. I often found myself as the battery commander's sounding board and advisor concerning other matters as well.

 

When I was a warrant, there were commissioned officers (and some E8s & E9s) that thought the warrant officer corps was unnecessary. But those officers generally had not served closely with warrants or were in a theater where their bread was not buttered by them. I found that those officers who had served with me in Germany or Korea, where the batteries were on 24-7 vigilance status and system availability time was critical, they appreciated warrants and thought warrants critical. But, maybe things have changed since I served. I don't know but I am deeply saddened.

 

2nd Lt in Key West, 1st Lt in Camh Ran Bay, with Improved Hawk. Can not imagine keeping that system on 5 minute firing status without the CW2's 24/7 skills.

 

700+ hours in a U-21 in Korea, 1969-1970, with CWO' s in the right seat. Freezing rain, Korean Air Traffic Control, and other undisclosed hazards. And Congress wants to cut these resources?

 

And these B........ds want to retire after one term?

 

Shameful,

 

AR

[Subdeacon Joe]

2nd Lt in Key West, 1st Lt in Camh Ran Bay, with Improved Hawk. Can not imagine keeping that system on 5 minute firing status without the CW2's 24/7 skills.

 

700+ hours in a U-21 in Korea, 1969-1970, with CWO' s in the right seat. Freezing rain, Korean Air Traffic Control, and other undisclosed hazards. And Congress wants to cut these resources?

 

And these B........ds want to retire after one term?

 

Shameful,

 

AR

 

Corporal of the Guard! Post 14! (^^^^^^^points up to that post)

[Utah Bob #35998]

 

Corporal of the Guard! Post 14! (^^^^^^^points up to that post)

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

"There was one rookie guard, he said, who halted him, questioned him and allowed him to pass. After he had gone several steps, the sentry again shouted, "Halt!" Sergeant Taylor came back and wanted to know—politely, of course—how come. "My orders," said the guard, "say to holler 'Halt' three times and then shoot. You're just on your second halt now!"

 

The other popular expression is the come-a-running call that goes up the line to the guardhouse when a guard takes a prisoner or "meets any case not covered by instruction" (General Order No. 9). If the guard is on the seventh post, he sings out, "Corporal of the guard! Post number seven!" The guard on the sixth post picks up the cry and it goes down the line like that.

 

There's the story about the officer of the day who questioned a new sentry, as officers of the day frequently do in order to test the sentries. "Suppose," the OD asked, "that you shouted 'Halt' three times and I kept going. What would you do?"

 

The guard was apparently stumped by the question. Finally he answered, "Sir, I'd call the corporal of the, guard."

 

The officer of the day gloated. "Aha!" he said. "So you'd call the corporal of the guard, would you? And just why would you call the corporal of the guard?"

 

This time the answer was prompt and decisive—and correct. "To haul away your dead body, sir!"

 

Another promising young guard, Sergeant Taylor says, was questioned by a sergeant of the guard. "Suppose you saw a battleship coming across that drill field over there. What would you do?"

 

The guard thought furiously. The answer—General Order No. 9—didn't come.

 

"What would you do?" the sergeant insisted.

 

A light came into the sentry's eyes. "I'd torpedo the thing and sink it."

 

The sergeant gasped. "Where would you get a torpedo?" he demanded.

 

The guard smiled brightly. "The same place you got that damned battleship," he said.

 

Heroes are born, not made."

 

Stolen from: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/+301W/$301W-Readings-Hargrove.htm

[Blackwater 53393]

My dad was a WOJG during the Korean "Conflict" in the APs until he punched out a drunken captain that had some pull. Mustered out as A1st. His c/o was a colonel who, at my father's funeral, told me the captain needed his ass whooped and Daddy gave him what he needed. "Your old man woulda' been a full Warrant Officer if he'd stayed another thirty days," that colonel told me.

 

Dad went on to be a decorated LEO and, to some around these parts, a local hero.

 

 

OH!! And Hagel is truly an idiot, Duffle Blog or no!!

[Subdeacon Joe]

OH!! And Hagel is truly an idiot, Duffle Blog or no!!

 

Roger that.

[Shorty Jack Hammer]

Yes yes just Duffleblog....all satire and tongue in cheek. if you don't read it you should, you might get a chuckle

[Harvey Mushman]

My dad was a WOJG during the Korean "Conflict" in the APs until he punched out a drunken captain that had some pull. Mustered out as A1st. His c/o was a colonel who, at my father's funeral, told me the captain needed his ass whooped and Daddy gave him what he needed. "Your old man woulda' been a full Warrant Officer if he'd stayed another thirty days," that colonel told me.

 

Dad went on to be a decorated LEO and, to some around these parts, a local hero.

 

 

OH!! And Hagel is truly an idiot, Duffle Blog or no!!

And that is EXACTLY why some believed the original post..................

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

My daughter's husband retired from the Corps after 30 years as the first of (at that time) only two CW5s in the Corps, a rank created for him. When he retired his team was in charge of installation, maintenance, and training of all land-based USMC (and some USN) air unit ground control equipment pretty much world wide. (he had also been a DI, and spent several years as firearms instructor and hand-to-hand combat instructor..... where he suffered a broken hip from a demonstration event.)

 

Her had a Brigadier and two Navy Captains, and several lower ranking officers, and a herd of SNCOs and WOs talk at his ceremonies at Coronado. I was very impressed, and I'm not easily impressed by anyone.

 

They handed our wristbands with WWGSD (What would Gunner Steier do) imprinted on them and everyone wore them.

 

He's back in harness again as GS two thousand or something because his last CO convinced him he was still needed and created a position for him.

 

I'm glad this isn't true, because he's not one to take something like this without spending some time in someone's face about it.

[Trailrider #896]

As I don't read "The Duffle Bag", I didn't realize this was a tongue-in-cheek. Maybe the thing to do is fire every stupidvisor in the VA system...and put an experienced CWO in charge!

[Old Scatterbrain]

http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/05/marine-corps-establishes-service-utilities-for-more-professional-look/

This would be even funnier if it were about the navy. For years people had to maintain separate dungarees for working and nice pressed/starched ones for other use. Then in the mid nineties they started issuing everyone coveralls to work in, but it took less than a year for some people to start requiring THEM to be pressed and starched.

[Utah Bob #35998]

http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/05/marine-corps-establishes-service-utilities-for-more-professional-look/

This would be even funnier if it were about the navy. For years people had to maintain separate dungarees for working and nice pressed/starched ones for other use. Then in the mid nineties they started issuing everyone coveralls to work in, but it took less than a year for some people to start requiring THEM to be pressed and starched.

Love the tie! :D