If the Air Force implements Warrant Officers, what pitfalls should they avoid and lessons learned should they consider?

I retired 27 years ago, so I am not real familiar with any changes since I hit the Retirement trail. In the Navy they are regarded very highly by senior officers and junior officers alike. Navy warrant ranks are filled with to best of the Chief Petty Officers (CPO's, E-7, E-8 & E-9) in their field and must apply for a position and a selection board reviews the service record and application, very few get selected. The E-7's selected as Warrants had to have a minimum of 14 years service and at least 2 years as a Chief. To give you some idea on how they are respected, in the Navy they are given the respect of a LCDR (O-4) in the wardroom seating and in State room placement. As an OOD Underway, my ships Capt. (O-6) always wanted his Chief Warrants or LDO's on the Bridge as OOD when things got busy, Like transiting the Panama Canal, Gibraltar, English Channel, or other tricky underway evolution's. I asked the Skipper about this and he said we know the Warrants have been in the Navy a long time and have tons of leadership abilities, and they tend to be more mature and level headed than Junior Officers. In the Navy, since a Warrant came from the Chief's ranks, he was always welcomed in the CPO mess. I was always welcome to join the CPO's for chow (They had the best) and to join into a double Deck pinochle game at any time! They were rarely questioned as to their professional or military decisions, and considered the best in their field. The Enlisted men also respect the Navy Warrant as he was one of them many years ago. I guess you can tell, I am a little Biased, but my career in the Navy was one I would never trade for anything.

There was great interaction between the senior enlisted, and the warrant officers. I want officer is recognized as a technical specialist, and expert in his or her field. The only problem I ever had was when I was mobilized for Desert Shield. I was the officer in charge of a port security to detachment, working with a Coast Guard cutter. The commanding officer of the cutterhead little, or no respect for the security detachment. It was below freezing, with sleet and snow. We could not go aboard the cutter on several occasions because they were having training. My crews needed to warm up, and dry out their equipment. When our RHI broke down we used the cutter's RHI for our patrols. The steering cable snapped on it, and we were nearly thrown overboard. The CO of the cutter stood on the bridge deck of the cutter (I was on the boat deck) and "reamed me out." The XO of the cutter contacted me the next day, and let me know that it was a maintenance issue. The commanding officer would not let them do preventive maintenance, in order to save money. I was a CW03 at the time. The commanding officer was a LTJG. In other words, I had well over 20 years experience, and he had maybe 5. I was told later that he lost his command over this, and several other issues that occurred during the security couple evolutions.

To sum this up, junior officers need to remember to trust the warrant officers. The warrant officers are specialists, and are experts in their field. They need to make sure they listen to the senior enlisted, and the warrants.

In my experience, Warrant Officers are generally better able to relate to the NCO corps. Most are former enlisted and because they are generally not in command positions, they can provide advice and counsel that is more readily accepted than their commissioned counterparts.