AC Warrant Officers

Warrant officers comprise a relatively small but vital group of technicians and specialists who serve in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. These Servicemembers ordinarily do not assume typical officer command responsibilities and their careers emphasize depth rather than breadth of experience, in contrast to commissioned officers.(10) (11) The status and duties of these experts, trainers, and specialty managers have grown and otherwise changed since their grades were established around 1920. Today, they can be found advancing within military careers such as aviation, physicians' assistant, nuclear weapons, and administration.

Although some warrant officers may enter directly from civilian life (e.g., helicopter pilots), most warrant officers previously were in the upper enlisted ranks. In FY 1998, 1,496 warrant officer accessions were added to the force and the overall total force of warrant officers on active duty stood at 15,413. Table 4.16 presents gender and race/ethnicity statistics on FY 1998 warrant officers. They are overwhelmingly male (94 percent) but have greater minority representation than commissioned officers. Blacks, in particular, are more highly represented among warrant officers, accounting for 15 percent of active duty warrant officers (in contrast to 8 percent of commissioned officers). Appendix Tables B-44 and B-45 provide a glimpse of warrant officer accessions and the corps of warrant officers on active duty by gender and race/ethnicity.

Table 4.16. FY 1998 Active Component Warrant Officer Accessions and Officer Corps, by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Service* (Percent)
Race/Ethnicity and Gender	Army	Navy	Marine Corps	DoD
ACTIVE COMPONENT WARRANT OFFICER ACCESSIONS
White	70.5	73.2	68.1	70.5
Black	19.8	20.8	17.2	19.6
Hispanic	5.1	2.3	10.8	5.5
Other	4.7	3.7	3.9	4.4
Male	90.8	94.0	93.1	91.6
Female	9.2	6.0	6.9	8.4
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
ACTIVE COMPONENT WARRANT OFFICER CORPS
White	75.3	77.9	77.1	75.8
Black	15.2	15.4	14.1	15.1
Hispanic	4.7	1.5	6.6	4.5
Other	4.9	5.1	2.2	4.6
Male	93.4	93.6	93.7	93.7
Female	6.6	6.4	6.4	6.4
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. * The Air Force does not have warrant officers. Also see Appendix Tables B-44 (Warrant Officer Accessions and Officers by Gender) and B-45 (Warrant Officer Accessions and Officers by Race/Ethnicity).