Chapter 4 - Active Component Officers/Education

Warrant Officers [footnote 10]

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. [footnote 11, 12] 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 2000, 1,504 warrant officer accessions were added to the force and the overall total force of warrant officers on active duty stood at 15,181. Table 4.16 presents gender and race/ethnicity statistics on FY 2000 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 16 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 2000 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	74.3	73.8	70.2	73.5
Black	14.2	21.7	19.8	16.5
Hispanic	5.3	1.1	7.3	4.8
Other	6.3	3.5	2.8	5.2
Male	92.2	96.5	93.2	93.2
Female	7.8	3.5	6.9	6.8
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
ACTIVE COMPONENT WARRANT OFFICER CORPS
White	74.5	76.7	75.3	74.8
Black	15.7	17.4	15.8	15.9
Hispanic	5.1	1.5	6.9	4.9
Other	4.7	4.4	2.1	4.3
Male	93.1	95.4	93.8	93.5
Female	6.9	4.6	6.2	6.5
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).

[footnote 10] For more detailed information on warrant officers, see Department of Defense, DoD Report on the "Warrant Officer Management Act" (WOMA) (Washington, DC: Author, 1989). [back to paragraph]

[footnote 11] Upper-level warrant officers, however, frequently function in foreman-type roles within their system specialties. [back to paragraph]

[footnote 12] The Air Force discontinued its warrant officer program in 1959 and increased promotion opportunities for senior enlisted personnel. [back to paragraph]

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