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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: 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.