History of U.S. Navy Warrant Officer Rank
by U.S. Navy Nicholas Roland, Historian Naval History and Heritage Command February 4, 2020
Modern warrant officer ranks trace their origins back to medieval
England. As early as 1040, warships furnished to King Edward the
Confessor included crews with permanent officers designated master,
boatswain, carpenter, and cook. These officers were in charge of the
sailing and maintenance of the ship, while the captains’ and
lieutenants’ sole purpose was to command soldiers carried onboard
and to lead their troops during combat.
Showing from left: Private, Drummer (Marine Corps), Warrant Officer, Musician, Chief Petty Officer (Master-at- Arms), Private (Marine Corps), Corporal (Marine Corps). Lithograph by Werner, copyright in 1899 by The Werner Company.
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By the fifteenth century, the captains and lieutenants began
taking over the executive operation of the ships. Eventually they
were considered naval rather than army officers, but a distinction
was maintained between officers holding commissions and those
holding warrants. Commissioned officers held a commission from the
monarch authorizing them to exercise command of naval vessels and
personnel. Warrant officers, on the other hand, held a warrant –
derived from the French word warant, meaning variously a protector,
a defense, and an authorization – issued by the admiralty.
Unlike commissioned officers, whose purpose was to command ships and
Sailors, warrant officers were expert seamen who possessed special
skills that were essential to the operation of sailing ships. In
recognition of this expertise, these men received warrants to
distinguish them from enlisted seamen and to confer lawful authority
upon them, while not conveying the responsibility of command that
was exercised by commissioned line officers. Although United States
Navy warrant officers are now legally considered commissioned
officers as well, their traditional role as expert technical
specialists continues to this day.
Much like early commissioned officer ranks,
Continental Navy warrant officer ranks were quite simple when
established in 1775. The Continental Navy mirrored the British
Navy’s rank structure at the time, and warrant officer ranks
reflected the specialized knowledge required to keep a warship in
operation: master (an expert navigator), purser, second master,
surgeon’s mate, cook, “armourer,” gunsmith, master-at-arms, and
sailmaker comprised the warrant ranks authorized by the Continental
Congress.
Also like commissioned officer ranks, warrant ranks
underwent considerable change during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, with the same ranks classified at various times as
enlisted, warranted, or commissioned. When the United States Navy
was reestablished in 1794, the authorized warrant officer ranks were
sailing-master, purser, boatswain, gunner, sailmaker, carpenter, and
midshipmen. In contrast to the Continental Navy, the 1794
legislation considered cooks, armorers, gunsmiths, and
masters-at-arms to be enlisted petty officers, while surgeon’s mates
were considered commissioned officers. Legislation in 1813 made
pursers commissioned staff officers and established master’s mates
as warrant officers, although Navy registers did not list master’s
mates as warrant officers at any time thereafter. In 1837 the title
of master replaced that of sailing-master, and by at least 1838
master’s mates were definitely considered an enlisted rate.
Unlike commissioned officer ranks and excepting sailing-masters and
master’s mates, until 1899 the warrant officer corps did not have an
internal rank structure, with all warranted ranks equal to one
another and subordinate to the commissioned officers of the ship.
One minor and short-lived distinction between masters “in line of
promotion” and masters not in line of promotion began in 1855.
Midshipman was a warranted rank in the pre-Civil War Navy and
beginning in 1819 midshipmen were required to pass an examination to
qualify for promotion to lieutenant. Masters in line of promotion
were drawn from the ranks of those midshipmen who had passed their
examinations. As vacancies occurred, these masters were then
promoted to the commissioned office of lieutenant. An 1862 overhaul
of the Navy’s rank structure eliminated the warrant officer rank of
master, and it was converted into an officer rank below lieutenant
and above ensign. This wartime legislation also ended midshipman as
a warranted rank. Boatswains, gunners, carpenters, and sailmakers
were the only warrant officers retained between the Civil War and
1898.
Around the turn of the twentieth century warrant
officer ranks began to grow again. The first new warrant rank was
that of pharmacist, created in 1898 with the legislation that
established the Navy Hospital Corps. In 1899, Congress created the
ranks of chief boatswain, chief gunner, chief carpenter, and chief
sailmaker, who were to be commissioned and rank “with but after
ensign.” Warrant officers could be promoted to chief warrant officer
ten years after their date of rank and upon passage of a board of
examination. The legislation automatically promoted currently
serving warrant officers with fifteen years in-grade. For the first
time, chief warrant officers appeared in the Navy and a warrant
officer’s rank was no longer synonymous with his specialty.
The same legislation also created warrant officer machinists to help
meet the modernizing United States fleet’s increasing requirements
for mechanical expertise. Legislation in 1904 reduced the time
in-grade requirement for promotion to chief warrant officer to six
years, and after 1909 all warrant machinists were commissioned as
chief machinists. This legislation increased the warrant officer
corps to 10 ranks in six specialties.
As the Navy approached
the First World War, warrant officer ranks and specialties continued
to expand. Warrant pay clerk was established in 1915, with promotion
to chief pay clerk possible after six years in-grade. The chief
pharmacist rank was created the following year. Remnants of the age
of sail began to disappear: the last chief sailmaker left active
Navy service in 1918, although Chief Sailmaker Charles E. Tallman
remained on the retired list until 1934. With the increase in
shipboard electricity and radio communications, electrician, chief
electrician, radio electrician, and chief radio electrician joined
the warrant officer corps in 1925. On the eve of the Second World
War, the Navy had 15 warrant officer ranks in eight specialties.
After the United States’ entry into the Second World War, eight
new warrant officer ranks were created: torpedoman, chief
torpedoman, ship’s clerk, chief ship’s clerk, photographer, chief
photographer, aerographer, chief aerographer. Although some of the
roles of these new specialties had been previously carried out by
Sailors in other fields – gunners had formerly done the duties of
the new torpedomen, for instance – the Navy recognized that the
rapid acceleration of technological change and the increasing
specialization required for technical fields demanded a growth in
the warrant officer corps. By 1948, there were 12 warrant officer
specialties: boatswain, gunner, torpedoman, electrician, radio
electrician, machinist, carpenter, ships clerk, aerographer,
photographer, hospital corpsman (formerly pharmacist), and pay
clerk. The Career Compensation Act of 1949 established the pay
grades of warrant officer-1 through chief warrant officer-4, for the
first time expanding warrant officer grades beyond simply warrant
officer and chief warrant officer in a given specialty.
On
the recommendation of a board convened by the Chief of Naval
Operations, the Navy decided to phase out warrant officers beginning
in 1959. This decision was spurred by two developments: the
establishment of the limited duty officer (LDO) program in 1947 and
the creation of senior chief (SCPO/E-8) and master chief petty
officer (MCPO/E-9) rates in 1958. LDOs are commissioned officers
with special technical training, who exercise authority and
responsibility greater than that expected of warrant officers, but
whose career path is outside the normal pattern for line officers.
The board concluded that between the new senior enlisted ranks and
the creation of LDOs, warrant officers no longer had a role in the
Navy.
These beliefs did not pan out. Over time it became
evident that E-8s and E-9s lacked the statutory authority necessary
to carry out the duties formerly belonging to warrant officers,
while LDOs were typically in managerial positions that did not allow
for direct supervision of enlisted technicians. Clearly, warrant
officers were still needed to fill this gap in expertise, authority,
and management. In 1963, another board reversed course and
recommended the reinstatement of the warrant officer program.
Eleven years later yet another board examined the warrant
officer and limited duty officer programs and recommended several
changes, including clearly defined roles for warrant officers and
limited duty officers and specific billets for each. Pay was another
issue at the time: a senior enlisted Sailor who became a warrant
officer-1 would suffer a pay decrease, a situation which worked
against the Navy’s efforts to maintain its warrant officer manning.
To alleviate this problem, the Navy eliminated the warrant officer-1
rank in 1975. Eventually promotion from senior enlisted directly to
higher warrant officer grades also helped to alleviate the problem.
Warrant officer ranks and specialties have continued to change
up to the present day to improve retention, meet the Navy’s manning
needs in certain specialties, and maintain expertise in critical
fields. Congress established the grade of chief warrant officer-5 in
1991. However, the Navy did not institute it until October 2002, a
move that was aimed at retaining warrant officers for a full 30-year
career.
In 2006, a trial program created a pathway for chief
warrant officers to serve as pilots and naval flight officers with
the intent to create flying specialists unencumbered by the
traditional career paths of the officer unrestricted line community.
Due to changes in the naval aviator population, the flying CWO
program was subsequently eliminated in 2013.
Most recently,
in an effort to retain cyber specialists, the Navy has announced
that beginning in 2019 the rank of warrant officer-1 will be brought
back from its 44-year absence for Sailors in this specialized field.
Those eligible must be of the rank of petty officer second class or
higher, hold a cryptologic technician networks rating, and have
between six and 12 years in service.
Warrant officer
specialties grew from 12 in the Second World War to 26 by 1979.
Presently, the Navy has 31 billet codes for warrant officers, with
two (nuclear power technician and explosive ordnance disposal
technician) in the process of being phased out. As technologies
constantly change and manning requirements fluctuate, the warrant
officer corps will continue to expand and contract in various
fields. In the twenty-first century Navy, perhaps more than ever
before in its history, the technical expertise and wealth of
experience held by warrant officers continues to be an essential
ingredient in maintaining the fleet’s fighting edge.
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