Warrant officers don’t have commissions, correct?
Thanks,
Rob
This is true, but it’s kind of like “invertebrate” in zoology or Calvinist Christians’ tendency of calling all non-Calvinists Arminians: a classification that is defined as “Not X” is often so broad as to be useless.
NCOs in the strict sense are enlisted men who have been promoted to positions where they are in authority over others (officers) but who have not been made commissioned officers (Army/AF second lieutenant, Navy ensign and up) by act of Congress or the President. (Brevetting, giving someone a temporary rank to match their assignment, enters into this but is irrelevant to the definition – the idea is that if you’re stuck due to casualties without an officer, better make the experienced Master Sergeant/Master Chief a brevet Looie than any other available choice; he may not have the specific training of a commissioned officer, but he has leadership experience to get you past a bind.)
Warrant Officers, in contrast, are people in specialized military positions who have been named as such by warrants, and fit into the gap between the Lord High Master Chief Sergeant Major Petty Officer of the World In General and the newbie O-1 commissioned officer, with the ink still wet on his commission.
I think you may have left out a word, or maybe just have some awkward phrasing in your second paragraph. NCOs (E-7 to E-9) are just senior enlisted and are never in a position of authority over officers unless it’s in a special training venue. I was a Navy Chief, and while an officer might respect my opinion on something, he was the guy giving the orders.
Warrant Officers are neither fish nor fowl: former enlisted, but not commissioned. They are supposedly the technical experts of the officer corps, and I know the Army uses them as chopper pilots. They weren’t all that common in the Navy, at least not in the Seabees.
Warrant Officers get to eat in the wardroom, though, and salutes are rendered to them. Not so with NCO’s.
They also have access to the CO that enlisted men don’t, and can be valuable spokesmen for enlisted mens’ issues.
I’m going with awkward phrasing, that he meant that NCOs are officers in that they are in authority over others, not that NCos are in authority over officers.
Just to cloud the issue further, Warrant Officers above W01 (The lowest grade) actually are Commissioned Officers.
Correct. (NCO’s are “officers” in the sense they have authority over others, but not officers in the sense that they hold a commission – nor of course do they have any authority over commissioned officers, quite the reverse.
I’m not sure that most of them are former enlisted. In my Army days, the only warrant that I met that wasn’t a chopper pilot did happen to be former enlisted; he was a technical specialist at one of our electronics depots. But all of the chopper pilots were exclusively chopper pilots by initial training and became warrants directly.
Pretty thin, man. I was in charge of others when I was an E-3, but am pretty sure from all the yelling that nobody thought of me as an officer. 
The important part here being “specialized military positions”. Historically, this concept comes from back in the 17th and 18th centuries, when ships had the “ship’s company” (which is still a term you’ll hear used), headed by a captain, and staffed by a few lieutenants, and with a whole bunch of enlisted sailors, some of whom were petty officers, just like a land infantry company (petty officer = sergeant, at sea)
The other specialists needed to run a ship, such as the Master, the Gunner, the Purser, etc… were hired and given a ‘warrant’ which was a sort of document attesting that they were to be given special respect and recognition due to their technical expertise and standing within the ship, even though they are not within the direct chain of command.
So they weren’t officers per-se, but they weren’t common seamen (or NCOs) either.
This eventually moved over from the Royal Navy into various militaries, and for much the same reasons. For example, the US Army doesn’t necessarily want non-commissioned helicopter pilots, but nor do they want them all to be commissioned officers either, so most are warrant officers.
NCOs on the other hand are enlisted men who have been promoted from within the ranks.
My understanding is that when someone who isn’t a commissioned officer is doing a job that would normally be done by a commissioned officer (pilot, for instance), you give that person a warrant. They have as much authority as is needed to do the job.
Warrant Officers from W-2 to W-5 are commissioned, but the term “commissioned officer” is reserved for officers O-1 to O-10.
Basically, there seems to be a terminology game here. “Officers”, standing alone in the context of the military, tends to mean “commissioned officers”, but in realilty, the definition of “officer” is someone who holds a position of authority. NCO’s (Corporal and above, I believe), can be assigned to have authority over other enlisted personnel, and I think could even be placed over a commissioned officer as part of a very specific activity. I do believe that the general “chain of command” can be flexed when specific project teams are formed for a specific purpose, as opposed to the general chain of command. E.g. Sergeant Jones might be selected as “project manager” for a base beautification project, and newly minted 2 Lt Smith might be assigned to help out in order to familiarize him (Lt. Smith) with local base procedures as kind of a gentle introduction to the base. In that case, Sgt. Jones would have some localized authority over the officer for the purposes of that project.
Think drill sergeants - they have authority over the lowly recruit privates in his class, right? But the Captain or Colonel in charge of the boot camp has more general authority over training.
Is a First Sergeant similar to a NCO?
My dad’s last post was an Air Force First Sergeant (his rank was Master Sergeant). He worked directly under the base commander. He handled a lot of administrative duties for the enlisted men. He was the one that called at 2AM when someone got arrested off base. I feel very sorry for those guys. 
First Sergeant is a rank modifier based on a specific position, so someone would be a Master Sergeant (Senior NCO) as well as a First Sergeant, for example. When he leaves that position, he’ll still be a MSgt but he won’t be a first sergeant anymore. First sergeants don’t supervise people directly, but instead act as a liaison between the commander and the enlisted force. Effectively, they’re like the vice principal in a high school.
In the Air Force (not sure about the army), first sergeants aren’t addressed as such. You may refer to the first sergeant, the first shirt, or tell someone to “go see the shirt.” But if you were addressing the person you would say “Master Sgt Smith” instead of “First sergeant Smith”.
Are you sure he was only a Master Sergeant (E-7) and not a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9)? The latter is more likely if he was working directly for the base CO.
I called Dad. He said he was a MSgt. When he finished his tour in Viet Nam (working on instruments) the doctors found he had significant hearing loss and they took him off the flight line. He was made First Sgt and then retired after three more years.
Dad had been a supervisor in the instrument shop for years. I guess that gave him the skills for his later position.
Perhaps he was First Shirt for his squadron, then. The senior enlisted on a military base is almost always an E-9.
They probably thought of you as petty though. 