INDIANAPOLIS - The first warrant officers ever taught in a National Guard school were appointed in a Sept. 30 ceremony here.
The 119 new warrant officers are a step toward redressing a critical shortage in the ranks of the Army National Guard.
“You pursue a warrant officer career at a very critical time in our nation’s history,” Brig. Gen. James Nuttall, deputy director, Army National Guard, told the new officers during their appointment ceremony in the Indiana World War Memorial Building.
“How fitting that you commence your careers by making history as the first graduating class from the Army National Guard warrant officer candidate school,” Nuttall said. “This is the first year (in the past five) that we’ve had a positive net gain (in warrant officers).”
The turnaround in the warrant officer program is part of a dramatic improvement in the Army National Guard’s overall recruiting picture. “Fifteen months ago, strength was 331,000,” Nuttall said. “Today it’s 345,600. An unbelievable achievement. Nearly a 14,000 gain in a 15-month period. We should be at 350,000 by the end of the year.”
The warrant officer candidate school was forged by a partnership between the National Guard and the active duty Army, including the warrant career center at Fort Rucker, Ala., and Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).
“If we did not do this and we were continuing the way we were, the warrant officer (corps) as we know it today would have disappeared in three-and-a-half years, (when) it would be less than 20 percent filled,” said Col. Guy Campion. As commander of Indiana’s 70th Regional Training Institute, Campion was one of the prime movers in bringing the new school at the Camp Atterbury Joint Forces Maneuver Training Center to fruition – a nine-year effort.
“You can’t keep extending people past 60,” Campion said. “Eventually, they’re all 65 and 70.”
The critical shortage of warrant officers comes at a time when the Army National Guard seeks to expand the corps from 8,000 to 12,000, he said.
“This program produced 119,” he said. “Within three to four years, it needs to be producing 500 to 700, and even at that rate, with retirements, it will take six to eight years to become full strength.”
One measure of the importance of the appointment ceremony was the cluster of planes that landed in Indianapolis, carrying commanders from around the country eager to recognize badly needed additions to their state’s warrant officer ranks.
Maj. Gen. Robert French, deputy adjutant general/Army of the Pennsylvania National Guard, came to congratulate his state’s eight newest warrant officers.
“We’re short about 100 or so,” French said. “So this is a start.”
French said he envisioned the new school giving the warrant officer corps similar multiple routes of entry as are available to officer candidates, who can seek commission by attending a one-shot school, through individual training and a shorter school or through the ROTC program, among other options.
“This is one more tool in our tool bag,” French said.
Command Sgt. Major David Corkran of Maryland’s joint forces headquarters came to salute his state’s successful candidates. “I have two young candidates – or I should say two young warrant officers – that I’ve been real proud of,” Corkran said. “This is an opportunity for us to try to work out the shortage that we are currently experiencing.”
The Army National Guard warrant officer candidate school addresses the challenge of candidates taking time away from civilian employment to go to school.
Previously, warrant officer candidates – many of whom have already had work absences for domestic missions or overseas deployments – needed to take about five weeks to attend Fort Rucker.
“It’s hard for them to take off five weeks in a row,” said Warrant Officer Kerri Wolf, warrant officer strength manager for the Maryland Army National Guard.
The Army National Guard program requires five weekend drills and two weeks of full-time school. “Which,” Wolf pointed out, “is their normal military commitment, so it doesn’t affect their civilian jobs at all.”
After 23 years’ enlisted, former Sgt. 1st Class Chrisandra Hayes of South Carolina walked out of the Indiana World War Memorial Building a warrant officer on Sept. 30.