A warrant officer (WO) is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.
The rank was first used in the (then) English Royal Navy and is today used in many other countries, including the Commonwealth nations, and the United States. Outside the United States they are effectively senior non-commissioned officers with long military experience, although technically in a cadre of their own between non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers. Warrant officer is a rank between flight sergeant and pilot officer in the Royal Air Force. However, warrant officers in the United States are technical leaders and specialists, and chief warrant officers are commissioned by the president of the United States and take the same oath as regular commissioned officers. They may be technical experts with long service or direct entrants, notably for U.S. Army helicopter pilots.
Read more about Warrant Officer: History: Origins in The Royal Navy
Famous quotes containing the words warrant and/or officer:
“Sometimes, when I compare myself with other men, it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any deserts that I am conscious of; as if I had a warrant and surety at their hands which my fellows have not, and were especially guided and guarded. I do not flatter myself, but if it be possible they flatter me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There was something so free and self-contained about him, something in the young fellow’s movements, that made that officer aware of him. And this irritated the Prussian. He did not choose to be touched into life by his servant.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)