Thursday, February 08, 2007

Warrant officer recruiters seek candidates

CWO3 Angel Martinez, course manager and instructor at The School of Geospatial-Intelligence, assists warrant officer students with imagery and analysis of the lay of the land. The information gathered including rivers, roads and water depth, helps commanders make decisions. (Photo by Marny Malin)

Qualified Fort Belvoir Soldiers may be eligible for a new career path that can lead to faster promotions, better pay and technical training.

A warrant officer recruiting team from the U.S. Army Recruiting Command Head-quarters in Fort Knox, Ky., will come to Fort Belvoir to brief interested applicants on the qualifications and application procedures of becoming a warrant officer on Monday and Tuesday.

“Warrant officers are single-track specialties, they receive special technical training to operate the Army’s most complex machines,” said CWO5 Eddie Mallard, the command chief warrant officer at U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command.  “We’re the guys that make sure everything runs, communicates and operates.”

The briefings will take place in the Barden Education Center Rm. 106 at 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. both days.

Currently, the Army is expanding the amount of applications in all 15 warrant officer specialties that include military intelligence, military police and aviation.

To qualify to become a warrant officer a Soldier must be an E-5 or above with general technical score of 110 or higher, be between the ages of 18 and 46 and have completed the Primary Leadership Development Course, said Mallard.

Some of the advantages to becoming a warrant officer include better pay and retirement, faster promotions, technical training and education, an extended career path and performing core duties longer, Mallard said.

“Serving the country as a warrant officer has been a great experience,” said Mallard. “That’s why I’m still in the Army after 40 years.”

For more information e-mail Mallard at or visit U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s Web site at http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq.warrant.