Warrant Officer 1
The entry grade of the US Army warrant officer corps, WO-1, appointed by warrant as a technical expert.
Overview
Warrant Officer 1 is appointed by the Secretary of the Army rather than commissioned by the President, reflecting the rank origin as a royal warrant for a skilled specialist. WO1s and chief warrant officers are the Army technical elite: helicopter pilots, cyber operators, special operations technicians, and maintenance experts whose expertise outranks generalist expectations. The grade sits between the senior enlisted and commissioned officer worlds, NATO code WO-1 within the WO-1 to WO-5 band. The US warrant concept descends from the naval warrant officer, the sailing master and paymaster of earlier centuries.
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