As part of the U.S. Army’s ongoing celebration of the Warrant Officer cohort’s 106th birthday, the U.S. Army Reserve is taking steps to enhance warrant officer recruiting and professional development.

“One of the things we are going to be tasked with shortly is to stand up the regional council of the Senior Warrant Officer Advisory Council,” explained Chief Warrant Officer Five Daniel Fuhrman, Command Chief Warrant Officer of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 99th Readiness Division. “The four Readiness Divisions are authorized to stand up regional councils to bring together the major subordinate commands within each of the RD’s footprints.”

While only CW5s and CW4s can have a voting seat on the regional council, warrant officers of all ranks are encouraged to attend and participate in the council.

“We want to provide a forum for warrant officers to come together and have their voices heard, to bring up issues they are concerned about so we can bring those issues to CW5 LaShon White, Command Chief Warrant Officer of the Army Reserve,” Fuhrman said.

The U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps was established by Congress in 1918, with 40 warrant officers serving in the newly formed Army Mine Planter Service.

Just over a century later, the Army Warrant Officer Corps offers 48 specialties in 17 branches to include science and medicine, support and logistics, signal and intelligence, aviation and aerial defense, mechanics and engineering, and ground forces.

To become a warrant officer, one must be an enlisted active-duty, Army Reserve or Army National Guard Soldier who has achieved expertise in his or her field and is selected to attend Warrant Officer Candidate School and the appropriate Army branch school.

“Focusing on enlisted and warrant officer recruiting is a high priority for the Army and Army Reserve,” Fuhrman said. “Since we recruit from the NCO ranks; we need to support the development of a healthy NCO Corps.

“Warrant officers are technical experts, so the expectation is that NCOs have served in their Military Occupational Specialty for a certain number of years, developed a level of expertise from an NCO perspective, and have the foundation as NCOs that they can build on as warrant officers,” he continued.

After joining the 99th RD this past February, Fuhrman was given the mission of focusing on and enhancing the Warrant Officer Corps by the 99th RD Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Kris Belanger.

“One of the first things I did was get with data scientists at U.S. Army Reserve Command and the Office of the Chief, Army Reserve to gain an understanding about where our gaps are so we can identify which MOSs to start focusing on,” Fuhrman explained.

“Coming into this position in the 99th has been incredibly eye-opening,” he continued. “Being in other units, you’re not exposed to a lot of what’s going on outside of the functional areas; seeing the breath that an RD covers will help me get that message out to warrant officers and the units within our footprint to let them know what other resources are out there, and how we can all partner together to drive readiness and improve Soldier morale.”

To learn more about the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps, visit https://recruiting.army.mil/ISO/AWOR/ and https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/find-your-path/warrant-officers.