{"id":18041,"date":"2023-07-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=18041"},"modified":"2023-07-09T06:42:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T06:42:16","slug":"army-warrant-officers-continue-legacy-of-technical-expertise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=18041","title":{"rendered":"Army Warrant Officers Continue Legacy of Technical Expertise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Warrant Officer Catherine Trujillo, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot with C Company, 1st Battalion, 140th Aviation Regiment, Washington Army National Guard, sits in the pilot\u2019s seat of a Black Hawk at the Army Aviation Sustainment Facility at Joint Base McChord-Lewis Washington. Warrant officers like Trujillo serve as tactical and technical experts in a variety of fields throughout the Army and Army National Guard. The warrant officer corps turns 105 on July 9, 2023.
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ARLINGTON, Va. \u2013 The Army Warrant Officer Corps turns 105 this year. On July 9, 1918, the Army created the Army Mine Planter Service as part of the Coast Artillery Corps, forming the warrant officer corps along with it. Warrant officers were appointed to serve as masters, mates, chief engineers and assistant engineers on mine planting vessels.<\/p>\n

From that start, the warrant officer corps has grown to include 17 Army branches and 46 specialties, ranging from marine deck officer to field artillery targeting technician.<\/p>\n

As birthday celebrations get underway, the warrant officer cohort continues to provide tactical and technical expertise throughout the Army and Army National Guard.<\/p>\n

Though the cohort may have begun on the water, for many, Army warrant officers are nearly synonymous with aviation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, roughly half our warrant population are aviators,\u201d said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Brian Searcy, the command chief warrant officer of the Army National Guard, referring to Army Guard warrant officers.<\/p>\n

For Warrant Officer Catherine Trujillo, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot with C Company, 1st Battalion, 140th Aviation Regiment, Washington Army National Guard, becoming a pilot was a dream that almost didn\u2019t become reality.<\/p>\n

At 35, she was three years past the cutoff age to begin flight training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept hearing from others that I couldn\u2019t, but I could not not try. I cannot have that regret later in life,\u201d said Trujillo. She pushed forward and jumped over each hurdle, including an age waiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept getting yesses, so I went through the flight evaluation board and I was selected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Now that Trujillo has earned her wings, she\u2019s mentoring others who worry they\u2019ve missed their chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can fly,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t ever tell yourself that you can\u2019t. Don\u2019t ever tell yourself that you are disqualified. Other people are going to tell you that enough. Don\u2019t let yourself speak those words and I can tell you, yes, you can. There is always a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warrant officers also serve in career fields outside aviation, tackling numerous technical challenges.<\/p>\n

For Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nichole Rauscher, a military intelligence systems maintenance technician and security manager with the California Army National Guard, being the technical expert is imperative because of the focused nature of her military occupational specialty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur MOS is very small and specialized,\u201d she said. \u201cWe maintain the intelligence architecture for the [California Army Guard] with very limited personnel. In the state there are currently less than a dozen enlisted [personnel in the field].\u201d<\/p>\n

Installing, operating and repairing those intelligence systems is a tall order, said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Benjamin Burnett, the command chief warrant officer of the California Army Guard.<\/p>\n

He said Rauscher\u2019s technical expertise as a warrant officer \u201cspeaks volumes\u201d about her character and dedication while ensuring \u201cthe systems are always up and running and providing critical intelligence to support military operations around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnett\u2019s technical savvy has also had a lasting impact. In 2021, he was recognized in the Army\u2019s \u201cI Own This\u201d maintenance campaign, which focused on individuals who exemplify the highest standards and contribute meaningfully to their unit\u2019s overall maintenance and supply posture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter assisting various units with maintenance and command maintenance discipline program training, Chief Burnett helped streamline their processes by creating an application that provides information to operators and maintainers that assists them with drivers\u2019 training, work orders, reports, dash 10 TMs [technical manuals] for PMCS (Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services) and much more,\u201d said Sgt. 1st Class Steven Apodaca in his nomination of Burnett.<\/p>\n

The computer app, called \u201cMobile Soldier,\u201d has made the maintenance program easier to manage, said Apodaca, adding that it wouldn\u2019t have been possible without Burnett\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cChief Burnett spent numerous hours of his personal time to develop an app designed to train, assist and guide Soldiers in the field to achieve Army standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just what warrant officers bring to the fight, said Searcy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the technical experts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Warrant Officer 1 Victoria Morales, assigned to the California Army Guard\u2019s 340th Brigade Support Battalion and part of the team at the Fort Irwin Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site, her knowledge of Army equipment and parts inventory systems led to a reconciliation of nearly $10 million of missing equipment and parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it was helicopter parts that had been ordered to the wrong [location] and were showing up on the ground maintenance side of things instead of on the aircraft side,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The parts were installed on aircraft without being properly logged in the system. The rest of the parts were for the ground maintenance side but had similar accounting issues.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Morales got to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiple inventories were conducted, as well as reorganizing the shop stock on hand for the aviation ground support equipment and countless hours of research and emails,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The missing parts weren\u2019t really missing; they just hadn\u2019t been accounted for. Morales\u2019 work to reconcile the discrepancies between on-hand inventory and what had been ordered meant there was no need for an official investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter six months of grueling work, the reconciled [inventory] was handed over to the incoming commander, relieving my commander from a [liability] of $10 million,\u201d said Morales.<\/p>\n

Morales\u2019 tenacity, especially with technical details, isn\u2019t surprising, said Searcy, adding that\u2019s the hallmark of the warrant officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tend to be a little bit blunt and attack issues,\u201d he said. \u201cWe try to get into issues and get things resolved as efficiently as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with the Army\u2019s shift to countering near-peer threats and large-scale combat operations, Army Guard warrant officers\u2019 technical skills will remain in demand as the Army Guard of 2030 is built, said Searcy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Army of 2030 is going to be very technical,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to need those technical warrant officers to be able to fix systems, run systems, maintain systems. They\u2019re going to need to be technically ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

That holds true for aviation warrant officers as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to get those new aircraft, whatever they may be, and those aviators are going be in aircraft that are more technical than what they\u2019re in right now,\u201d said Searcy.<\/p>\n

Attracting and retaining the right people is essential, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have really smart, well, not just warrant officers, but enlisted too, because that\u2019s where we feed from,\u201d said Searcy.<\/p>\n

That ensures the warrant officers\u2019 legacy as technical experts continues for the next 105 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a team effort \u2014 taking care of people, reforming, getting ready for the Army of 2030,\u201d said Searcy. \u201cThat\u2019s going to take all of us to do that and all of us working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

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National Guard Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warrant Officer Catherine Trujillo, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot with C Company, 1st Battalion, 140th Aviation Regiment, Washington Army National Guard, sits in the pilot\u2019s seat of a Black Hawk at the Army Aviation Sustainment Facility at Joint Base McChord-Lewis Washington. Warrant officers like Trujillo serve as tactical and technical experts in a variety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18043,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18044,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18041\/revisions\/18044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}