Which provides a better quality of life, Warrant Officer (Aviation) or Commissioned Officer (MI)?

2017-10-29T14:19:59-04:00

BLUF; I cannot decide between Aviation WO, returning to my civilian career, or G2G due to my lack of knowledge in regards to quality of life in each.

Hello,

I am inquiring information in regards to how nice the quality of life is for each Aviation Warrant Officer, and Commissioned Officer. Now please keep in mind, when I ask this I am not speaking from entitlement or seeking to be spoiled. I truly could care less how nice the housing is, or any petty materialistic subject.

When I reference quality of life I am asking about:
-How often will I spend time with my family?
-How often will I be wasting time after duty hours doing non-essential tasks?
-How frequent does X career get placed into high op-tempo and frequently deploying units?

Essentially, quality of life means: is my work actually valuable and making a difference, and am I sacrificing my family entirely.

A short background to explain why each interests me so that you can properly criticize my decisions:

Civilian:I would like to go back into software development because it was a simple job that provided me with a plethora of income to sustain and grow.
Highest amount of freedom out of the choices, highest overhead cost.

GS Position: I am a 35F with an alphabet soup clearance, my home of record is in the MD/DC/VA region. I can trip and fall into a job. Fuzzy on how stable the job is for GS workers.

Aviation Warrant Officer:Great pay, more respect. Less duty station options, higher chance (to my knowledge) of constant deployment rotation due to the nature of your WMOS. Probably bad for my family.

Commissioned Officer via G2G: Great pay, more respect, the ability/pull/power to actually make a practical and statistical change in today's army to make the branch better and more efficient rather than just fruitlessly whining about it. Not sure how much family time one gets, not sure if my G2GAD packet will get accepted, not sure if attaining my graduates will take 2yrs or if it will take longer.

At the end of the day my ultimate goal is the youngest retirement, and best life my family can have. Military communities have fantastic resources for children and families alike, and I plan to have my firstborn within the next two years regardless of choice. Wife and I love the time I get as a lower enlisted working at an intelligence unit, but fully comprehend life gets worse at other installations/units.

If you've read this far you're patient, and I appreciate your contribution.

Response by CW5 Ranger Dave made Oct 29 at 2017 2:25 PM

2017-10-29T14:25:25-04:00

Go Aviation Warrant. You will be a lot happier. I served one tour flying RC-12G SIGINT aircraft. Seeing the MI Commissioned side of the house was sad. MI eats their own young officers. Thank goodness that was my only dealing with the MI folks. Once was enough!

PS. Aviation is a great skillset for project transition.

Response by SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 29 at 2017 2:41 PM

2017-10-29T14:41:10-04:00

As a 15U, I would choose the Aviation Warrant Officer over the MI Commissioned Officer. While assigned to Korea, I got voluntold to work in the 2 CAB Brigade TOC for a total of 4 months. For some reason, we had lots of CW5s working in the BDE HQs. They would often bid me farewell at about 1500 each day, sometimes saying "Have a nice weekend, Sergeant!" on a Thursday afternoon. Warrant Officer pilots have it pretty cushy too, except for having to pull duties at the BDE (Staff Duty). Other than that, they are ninjas, living however they decide to live.

Response by LT Brad McInnis made Oct 29 at 2017 2:59 PM

2017-10-29T14:59:49-04:00

I always based my choices on what job would I enjoy doing more. It doesn't matter if you go home at 1500 every day, if you are miserable at work. Sometimes, you can spend days at work and enjoy the hell out of it. And always remember, you serve the needs of the military, not the other way around.

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 30 at 2017 2:08 AM

2017-10-30T02:08:42-04:00

Drop a packet and go Flight.

I read your entire post, and I can tell you from experience, if you go G2G, you'll never be able to affect the change you think you can. The Commissioned side is chalk full or bureaucracy and long days in front of trackers, power point and sitting at desks and tables for briefings that last hours, without being able to voice suggestions that'll be taken seriously. Now, don't get me wrong, there's bureaucratic nonsense in the Cohort too, but no where NEAR the level that O's have to put up with. To me, that pay was never worth it.

I have known plenty of Commissioned Officers who dropped their bars, and even a Major that turned in his Oak Leaf for a Square.

You fly. You mange yourself. You become the expert in your respective aircraft.

I was Infantry for nine years before I dropped my packet and I can tell you, my family life has never been better.

Plus, credential wise, you'll end up with more certifications, licenses and technical training if you go Aviation.

I can't stress Warrant enough.

Response by CW4 Brian Haas made Oct 30 at 2017 3:25 AM

2017-10-30T03:25:11-04:00

Flight Warrant in a heartbeat. No better job in the world.

Response by SSG James Behnke made Oct 30 at 2017 4:52 AM

2017-10-30T04:52:52-04:00

I would 100% recommend Aviation Warrant.

Prior to re-classing from 11B, I was playing with the idea of dropping an Aviator packet, but was intimidated by some of the pre-reqs, and ended up re-classing to CI instead. I love my job, but if I had to do it again I would have done what was necessary to submit the WO packet.

After talking with and dealing with many warrants, enlisted, and officers in multiple branches, Aviation WOs seem to have the best gig. Better pay than enlisted, less stress than officers (and Enlisted), sought after skills. Any time I speak to an Aviation Warrant it's like he/she hasn't a care in the world. Talk to any MI Officer and generally they ooze stress from all orifices. Lots and lots of power-points, briefs, myriad of responsibilities, reporting requirements, name a stressful thing, etc.

Would not choose the civilian job simply because military retirement is such a huge benefit, it is silly in my mind not to go after it.

Hope my input helps and good luck with your decision!

Response by CPT Lawrence Cable made Oct 30 at 2017 9:07 AM

2017-10-30T09:07:40-04:00

I can't speak for the Warrants, but I'll give you my experiences as Commissioned. In general, my company grade time in the Army were some of the best times, but also the most stressful for a couple of periods. In Infantry and Engineer Units, the Company is where the rubber meets the road and it's what I always considered to be real soldiering. OTOH, the only Staff job I ever had that I enjoyed was the Assistant Brigade Engineer, and I probably would have enjoyed Operations, but the rest were just jobs. It's a very busy lifestyle.
The up or out thing can start to be a bit trying when you hit O3. Slots can get pretty competitive, depending on your branch, as you hit the Major and above ranks.
I seriously considered dropping back to Warrant and picking up a 120A MOS when I went IRR.

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made Oct 30 at 2017 9:58 AM

2017-10-30T09:58:16-04:00

Lucky for you I read the entire Post before blowing my stack. As far as I'm concerned, serving is not about quality of life, but serving, but then I spent my career as a grunt in spearhead units. That side, WO are tech experts and can afford a lot of O type crap (tea's, parties, New Year CDR's gathering, etc.) They seldom have all the paperwork to do that drowns O types. As for family life- most will depend on the unit you are assigned to. In 82nd one year my Battalion spent 271 days in field/exercises with only weekend (read 1 day home, 1 day planning/prepping to go back out).

Response by CPT Derek Wren made Apr 12 at 2020 4:06 AM

2020-04-12T04:06:31-04:00

You can tell from reading your entire post that aviation is definitely the route you want to go, and you can definitely tell that you are lower enlisted just by what you’re saying You want to be doing something that matters and so forth. You also questioned if you time will be spent better than it would be as it is right now. I can tell you from personal experience just as many of the persons on here have, I made a promise/goal that I would become a commissioned officer and try to change what I could when and where I could and I did just that. however becoming a commission officer and changing the way things are is beyond harder than you can imagine. You are one officer and a massive machine that is already got set Waze that things are done.
After deploying to Iraq with an aviation battalion I wanted nothing more but the fly. I had the utmost most respect for the warrant officers we had and at the time I was an E4 but the warrants treated myself and everybody else like normal people, not to say that commission officers don’t. However as some of the other pilots on here told you when you go commissioned as you progress from a 2LT to 1LT then to a CPT, you can fly however your time in the air will be reduced significantly as you will have increased administrative duties put on you. As for a warrant officer they fly, they control what they’ve got going on, and they ensure that they make and or meet all necessary requirements as far as flying time and so forth. So they take away from this, GO WARRANT! You won’t be disappointed.