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In a short article, the US Naval Institute reports that the Navy will bring back the Warrant Officer-1 rank for certain specialists:
After a 44-year absence, the rank of warrant officer-1 will return to the Navy in 2019 for cyber specialists, a move signifying the great lengths the service must take to retain talent and fill leadership roles in an increasingly tight labor market.
The return of warrant officer-1 (W-1) — discontinued by the Navy in 1975 — is both a Navy bid to keep highly sought-after computer technicians and is indicative of the greater challenge facing the service as it seeks to meet growing recruiting and retention targets.
[...] Only a small number of enlisted personnel will qualify for W-1, the pay still will not match what the private sector offers, and the Navy will still face tough recruiting and retention challenges. However, those sailors who do qualify for W-1 will be the ones the Navy hopes will consider remaining in the service longer because [the] rank offers something the private sector can't as easily match — a quicker path to management positions.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Friday June 15 2018, @08:32PM (2 children)
One of those "its complicated" situations.
In the Reserves a quarter century ago, we had a warrant in our platoon technically outranking our platoon sgt.
First of all, there's a difference between the legal minimum to promote vs the supply and demand of your field and your personal skill. So google experts who see the legal minima to become a SSG is 6 years without a waiver or whatever are missing the point that even Rambo couldn't make SSG in 6 years. Now you can do that as a SF soldier, which is a long side track story. But G I Joe isn't gonna be a SSG in 6 years and it would be very unusual to meet a 6 year SSG in practice (unless you're in SF, etc)
Realistically a soldier doing the NCO thing could expect to make Sgt in charge of a squad around their first re-enlistment figure 6 years in, make SSG in charge of a section around a decade in, make SFC and become a platoon sgt around 15 years in, and first sgt in charge of a company is very hand wavy right around retirement age around 20 years. CSM type working at battalion or brigade are dinosaurs older than me, like 30 years in.
Realistically a solder dropping a warrant packet, to get accepted would have to be high quality and probably sgt before five years in, so figure a warrant can be second in command to a LT in charge of a platoon technically legally outranking the platoon sgt but mostly being a technical resource like fourth or fifth tier tech support, in just a little over five years.
So if you want to be an "alpha support tech" with maybe 25 to 50 lower skilled minions serving you, if you go the NCO route you have a lot of NCO middle management leadership bullshit in addition to being an "Alpha Techie" and its gonna take you at least 15 years to get there, or you can drop a warrant packet and be slightly more of an "Alpha Techie" in about 5 years. Thats what they mean by "its faster"
I was in a log unit on TDY (long story) that had a genuine operations NCO staff sgt, took him at least a decade to get there, but a warrant could "out tech" him and legally out rank him with about 5 years time in service.
I think that's what they mean with respect to getting into management faster. Management as in at least part of your job is being tier five tech support, not management as in shouting at grunts to dig ditches faster or WTF.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 16 2018, @12:51AM (1 child)
A staff-sergeant in the Army and Marines is an E-6. A staff-sergeant in the Air Force is an E-5, and in the Air Force that is coincidentally the rank they offer to all shitbags (and not shitbags) of 4-6 years of service approaching the end of their first enlistment term.
Who woulda thunk that people like being in charge of their own lives and would like to not get killed fighting bullshit wars (okay, so Air Force and Navy other than PJ's, TAC-P, and SEALS are never going to be at risk of any danger) and smoke a joint every now and then without being thrown in the brig and given a bad-conduct discharge?
Kind of a tangent, but post 9/11 was the last chance America had to use patriotism to rally troops to its cause. Ain't nobody falling for bullshit anymore, and any attempt at a draft would face violent domestic resistance. That's why we can have Mexicans do it for us. We might as well start a full-blown foreign legion to fight our bullshit wars because Blackwater (Xe, Academi, whatever) is really expensive
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17 2018, @04:06AM
> post 9/11 was the last chance America had to use patriotism to rally troops to its cause. Ain't nobody falling for bullshit anymore...
I sorely wish that were true. Have you met any Fox News viewers? People are falling for bullshit like never before. In fact it's the Golden Age of delicious, golden bullshit. When the flag starts flying and the news starts showing $1B military jets flying off $10B aircraft carriers 24/7 (rather than the usual 12/7), then America will get its woodie re-energized and LIBERAL TRAITORS will get pepper sprayed in the face.