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Warrant Officer Ranks


hhbooker2
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I just had a look at my old Class A jacket. My squashed-bugs are left/right facing. I replaced my jacket brass just before graduation (~1986) so all my buttons and collar brass are actually sterling silver not gold. I bought the set at clothing sales. Not sure who the maker is/was. This was long before general officers highjacked silver for themselves.

 

 

 

Can anyone doubt that counter-facing sets of warrant officer insignia were made after 1926? (And worn?) However, reviewing uniform and insignia regulations and The Officer's Guide editions published from the beginning of WWII until modern times we see just one design of warrant officer insignia, the one with the eagle facing its military right. Although warrant officer insignia is obsolete today, TIOH keeps a legacy article about it on its Web site (link here). It is interesting to read there that the warrant officer insignia was briefly discontinued in 1943 in furtherance of a plan that had warrant officers wearing branch insignia of the Army's basic arms and services, which is the system in use today.
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IF the air force no longer used or had warrent officers, then why where the rank insignia for this group continued to be made. The ones embiordered on blue cloth woukd be the type that would be worn on fatique shirts from around 1965 on, since there was no more warrent officers why then this insignia. Could it be that there where in fact still warrent officers in the air force ?, i know it says there wern't any after 1958-59, but i know for a fact that this type of full colour insignia on blue was not worn in the 50s, only from the mid 60s on.

 

Read this and had a chuckle, the AF type WO insignia continued to be used by CAP (Civil Air Patrol) for Senior Members between 18 - 21.

This is on e good explanation for the continued production of the insignia. BTW CAP did away with the WO ranks in the late 1980s replacing it with a funky Flight Officer rank system.

 

T-Bone

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Read this and had a chuckle, the AF type WO insignia continued to be used by CAP (Civil Air Patrol) for Senior Members between 18 - 21.

This is on e good explanation for the continued production of the insignia. BTW CAP did away with the WO ranks in the late 1980s replacing it with a funky Flight Officer rank system.

 

T-Bone

 

I was active in CAP when they changed over from WO ranks to those Flight Officer type. It wasn't a popular move with most of the folks in the age bracket that affected. We had one guy in our squadron that made CWO just before that change and he was one of the last to be a Warrant Officer and didn't change anything till he made 2nd Lt.

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Nice set of WO shoulder boards. I think these are WOJG (Warrant Officer Junior Grade) pre-WW2 or WW2 era, but I'm not 100% positive. There are snaps on the reverse for attaching to a uniform.

 

post-2757-1336438972.jpg

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USRegular

In reference to Warrant Officers being addressed as "Sir" or "Ma’am"; when I went through Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS) in 1996, it was drilled into us that those of us who had been enlisted were "Officers" now, and along with that came responsibilities. As officers, we were due the proper respect due officers, one of which was being addressed as "Sir" or "Ma’am". In fact, the first time I was addressed as sir, and saluted, I was still a Candidate in WOCS. I was walking to the PX when an E-7 passed me, called me sir, then saluted me! At first, I thought someone was behind me, and then I realized he was addressing me.

 

I was a 151A, Aviation Maintenance Technician, and I did see a difference between Aviation Warrant Officers and Warrant Officers in other branches. In the Aviation units I was in, all of the Warrants addressed each other by their first name. In my first unit as a Warrant, I addressed one of the pilots, a CW4, as "Mister ******". He stopped, looked at me, and told me to call him by his first name.

 

A few years later, I was in a Logistics unit, and I was addressing the other Warrants by their first names. My boss, a CW5, called me into his office and told me to address the other Warrants as either Mister or CW2, 3 or whatever; no more first names.

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Nice set of WO shoulder boards. I think these are WOJG (Warrant Officer Junior Grade) pre-WW2 or WW2 era, but I'm not 100% positive. There are snaps on the reverse for attaching to a uniform.

 

post-2757-1336438972.jpg

 

 

Those are for CW3 and would date between c.1956 (when four grades of WO bars were introduced) and c.1972 (when the gold/silver and brown bars were replaced by silver with black squares).

 

There was only one army WO grade till 1941, and they wore no grade insignia till mid-1942; their cap badge and branch badges served to show their rank. For the 1938 dress blues, which were authorized for warrant officers but not required, they wore a plain version of the commissioned officers' coat, without cuff braid or shoulder straps. WO shoulder straps didn't come around until the "rebirth" of the Army Blue uniform in the 1950s.

 

--Justin B.

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Those are for CW3 and would date between c.1956 (when four grades of WO bars were introduced) and c.1972 (when the gold/silver and brown bars were replaced by silver with black squares).

 

There was only one army WO grade till 1941, and they wore no grade insignia till mid-1942; their cap badge and branch badges served to show their rank. For the 1938 dress blues, which were authorized for warrant officers but not required, they wore a plain version of the commissioned officers' coat, without cuff braid or shoulder straps. WO shoulder straps didn't come around until the "rebirth" of the Army Blue uniform in the 1950s.

 

--Justin B.

 

Awesome! Thanks for the info.

 

Kevin

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As a former WOC, we were paid in 1966 at the E-5 payrate. We were also accorded the priveleges (however limited they were) of the rank. At graduation we were appointed Warrants and addressed as Mister or Sir. On board our Hueys, rank was informal. If I was flying with a field grade officer, it would be Major, col or whatever rank. A Captain was usually addressed as Cpt. Tom or similar. At that time, we never were commissioned. On my second tour, i was assigned to fly a high importance colonel and became p[retty much his aide. He offfered me a direct commission to 1LT. which financially, I could not turn down with a new child at home. Career wise, it was a poor choice as by the time I had a year in as Cpt. I needed a degree and command time to be competitive for acceptance to regular Army. enjoyed my time and I made many friends I still keep in regular contact.

 

Roger

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I have an helmet with special rank.. I posted it in the steel helmet section and i don t understand how to put it here too.. Someone tell me the helmet owner was a warrant Officer .... Is it possible ? Mah i ask you Aldo what does bowsansmate means?

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DutchInfid3l

@DutchInfid3l

Where did you get that rank card from?

 

Made it. Printed it out and it's on a piece of foam board.

 

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Made it. Printed it out and it's on a piece of foam board.

 

Really? I'm so jealous!!! It's an amazing show of af rank history

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Nice set of WO shoulder boards. I think these are WOJG (Warrant Officer Junior Grade) pre-WW2 or WW2 era, but I'm not 100% positive. There are snaps on the reverse for attaching to a uniform.

 

attachicon.gifWO_Shoulder_Board.jpg

 

the warrant officers, before and during ww2 used common officer shoulder boards made of bullion with main color brown BUT WITHOUT rank inside, this until 1953.

We must also say and specify that the blue dress uniforms for warrant officers don't had any bullion braid on sleeve cuff, as the other common officer until 1950s.

 

 

 

Giancarlo

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the warrant officers, before and during ww2 used common officer shoulder boards made of bullion with main color brown BUT WITHOUT rank inside, this until 1953.

We must also say and specify that the blue dress uniforms for warrant officers don't had any bullion braid on sleeve cuff, as the other common officer until 1950s.

I have to disagree a little bit. For the pre-WW2 dress blues warrant officers wore basically a plain coat: no shoulder straps, no cuff stripe. Shoulder straps were for "officers only," which in the regulations meant commissioned officers. The WO brown BoS color was shown on the trouser stripe, cap band and full dress belt. For the blue mess uniforms they wore the gold shoulder knots and the WO branch eagle on the cuff, no cuff stripe, and brown lapel facings

 

There was no rank device for WOs until Sept. 1942 when CWO was authorized, and of course dress uniforms weren't worn then. Before that, WOs were know by their branch insignia, cap badge and "plain" officer uniforms. After the war when dress unifroms came back, WOs were brought into line with commissioned officers with cuff stripes and brown shoulder straps with their rank bars.

 

Justin B.

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Very interesting topic.

 

Below there is the only one photo I know which shows WWII era early (rectangular) WOJG insignia. This is the AAF crewman in Panama in 1942.

 

post-75-0-96396900-1385664683.jpg

post-75-0-99781900-1385664695.jpg

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^ Rectangular like a lieutenant bar? That must be a manufacturer that jumped the gun. The QM Corps specs with drawings dated 1 Aug. 1942 show the familiar "pickle" shape. CWO and WOJG grades were authorized by Congress on 21 Aug. 1942 (Public Law 230, 77th Congress).

 

The wartime Officer's Guides also had illustrations that were not correct for CWO/WOJG/FO, as seen in post #41. My guess is the illustrator was going by written descriptions.

 

Justin B.

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Below there is the only one photo I know which shows WWII era early (rectangular) WOJG insignia. This is the AAF crewman in Panama in 1942.

 

Great pix., Gregory! Proof (again) that a period picture like this one is worth a thousand words. Who otherwise would believe the existence of such an unbelievable insigna?

 

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Yes John, I am surprised as well. What this AAFer has on his collar looks like insignia No. 29 from roadrunner's post #51, but the author of this post defines this insignia as "Army Warrant Officer post WW2".

? :)

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