WASHINGTON - The Army National Guard's warrant officer program is currently under its desired end strength and more are expected to leave in the near future, the command warrant officer of the Army Guard told an audience here at the 2010 Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting today.
"We are at 78.6 percent full when it comes to chief warrant officers, but we are still looking for about 2,000 more," said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Gary R. Nisker.
"As of today we have 45.7 percent or about 3,600 retirement eligible warrant officers that could move on," he said. "They have not done that yet, but if we don't start recruiting our own Soldiers … we could be hurting for a while.
Nisker suggested that new warrant officers might come from the prior service ranks.
We need to find those Soldiers that may be contemplating moving on and show them that they may have the potential to be a warrant officer, he said.
"If we can build off of their experience and not let them walk away … then it becomes a win-win."
The warrant officer corps has started to get the word out that they are looking to build up the ranks and replace the officers lost in a possible turnover.
"We will be bringing about 500 former non-commissioned officers, who are sitting on the fence as to whether they want to make this career change (at an upcoming workshop)," Nisker said. "And we hope to convince them that there are plenty of opportunities in the program."
He also stressed the importance of leading by example and grooming those troops with potential in their particular military occupational specialty code.
"All warrant officers need to be involved in the troop development of their unit as well," he said. "You need to make sure that you're there and that they know it."
As for the future of the Guard's warrant officer program, Nisker is optimistic.
"I'm hoping for the near future, that for most MOSs, there will be people standing in line ... for the opportunity to become the next warrant officer," he said.