Special Forces WO

[Lima_Bravo]

Any body has info about Special Forces Warrant Officer MOS 180A? Thanks

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The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in combat

[crazyplf]

Originally posted by Lima_Bravo:
Any body has info about Special Forces Warrant Officer MOS 180A? Thanks

What do you want to know?

[justagrunt]

Tracy would be the Guy to ask on this one...

[E19]

Army Warrant Officer Qualifications

180A. Special Forces Warrant Officer

Duties: Manages all aspects of Special Forces Operations in all operational environments. Supports Joint and Army strategic, operational, and tactical requirements at all levels of execution as concerns mission planning, development, and execution of special operations worldwide. Is responsible for the conduct of unconventional warfare, intelligence collection and strategic reconnaissance, collective security, strike operations, and counterterrorism operations; supports psychological, civil affairs, and deception requirements; and the conduct of other missions, relative to special forces capabilities, as directed.

Minimum prerequisites:

Be serving as a male SSG (E6) or above in CMF 18 MOS and be less than 36 years old

Graduate from the Special Forces (SF) Operations and Intelligence Sergeants Course (nonresident or resident) or SF Advanced Noncommissioned Officer’s Course (ANCOC) after October 1994. SSGs who have not been selected for promotion to SFC may apply and if found acceptable, will be notified by the proponent that they may attend the O&I portion of ANCOC.

Minimum of 3 years experience at the SF Operational Detachment Alpha (SF-ODA) level or Special Forces

Current DA Form 330 (within one year) with at least a 1+/1+ language proficiency or possess a minimum score of 85 on the Defense Language Aptitude Batter (DLAB)

Meet the medical fitness standards for SF duty and the SERE level “C” course according to AR 40-501 and include an SF Warrant Officer Candidate medical screening memorandum completed by the applicant’s surgeon

Pass the Army Physical Readiness Test (APRT) by achieving 70% of the maximum standard for a 17-21 year old male on each event: pushups, situps, and the two-mile run

Letters of recommendation from company, battalion, and group commanders and the group senior warrant officer. Individuals applying from units other than an SF group must receive letters of recommendation from their current chain of command and letters of recommendation from the previous SF group chain of command (including the group senior warrant officer advisor).

[whisky8]

E19,
I believe that some of the 180A course selection standards that you have described have been lowered a bit...

W8

[RWalker]

This may be a stupid question and there might be an obvious answer to this, but why is there an age limit? I can see not accepting a 50 year old, but it just seems a little counter-intuitive. They have this for OCS too, and why? Maybe someone has insight into this?

RKW

[Lima_Bravo]

Thanks E19, that's a pretty clear answer!!!

[Tracy]

The requirements have been lowered considerably since 1984. Everything but the 18 series MOS that E19 listed can be waivered.

There are WOs on SF A-Teams that went from SFQC, to O/I, to WOC School back-to-back. Many of them became WOs because they couldn't hack being Team Sergeants.

[MFFI]

Originally posted by Tracy:
The requirements have been lowered considerably since 1984. Everything but the 18 series MOS that E19 listed can be waivered.

There are WOs on SF A-Teams that went from SFQC, to O/I, to WOC School back-to-back. Many of them became WOs because they couldn't hack being Team Sergeants.

...good call! Quite a few guys I went to the q-course with spent MAYBE 2 years on a team (and gave the WO's hell the whole time) put in a packet, moved to the b-team pending orders then came back as SME of all things SOF... with fire in thier eyes for anyone that gave them a fraction of the grief they gave 'the chief' before they left. A good WO does his job not yours, a bad one tries to troubleshoot everything you do. A bad one almost makes you glad he took that route... (he'll never be anyones CSM, and you never need to worry what terror he'll bring when he takes over a BN.) The good ones on the other hand are a priceless asset to an A detachment.


of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong..............

[Spotlight_Ranger]

To add to the general discussion, of course almost anything can be waived these days. When I left there were kids fresh from the Q course marking time until they could turn in their packet. I ran into one guy that was shoved off his A-Team, and spent his remaining time as an extra commo guy on a B-team, then went. They submitted his B-team time as A-team time.

Age- I had one truly notable guy make SGM and went through the course just to go back to an A-team. I went warrant at 39, I wasn't the oldestt, but far from youngest. It is a balancing act of experience and age. A-teams tend to be tough on the old body, and sooner or later it does catch up. There still is no substitute for experience.

The other balancing act is of egos, and anybody in SF knows that issue well. If a guy goes warrant to be the team sergeant he is making a big mistake. If a Warrant lets the Team Sergeant run over him he's useless. I was truly fortunate in finding a team sergeant that matched up well with me. He truly out soldiered me any time he wanted, and I usually could out unconventionalize him. We fought like cats and dogs, but we never lost respect for each other. By the way who had the final word... He did, as long as he had my respect.

The question comes up frequently, there is no substitute for a good team sergeant. They do by their very nature hold the most critical and important position on the ODA.

Oddly enough the most respected Team Sergeant in SF can be promoted to the most reviled SGM.

[jeff]

There should never be a screwed up warrant. For the most part they come from the Groups and teams and we know them. Why do commanders keep endorsing duds? Why is it that we spare peoples feelings? These same **cked-up 18BCDEs become assistant detachment commanders and can do even more damage.
Warrants are like red headed women, there is no middle ground, good or bad only.

[wrangler]

Anyone heard of any team captains becoming warrant officers, possibly to spend more time on an A team?

[Silverbullet]

Fill out your profile before you post again.

[seapig173]

Army approves new SF warrant officer training
Special Warfare, Jan-Feb, 2006 by Janice Burton

In a move to increase recruiting and accessions into the Special Forces warrant officer military occupational specialty, or MOS 180A, on Nov. 23 Vice Chief of Staff of the Army General Richard A. Cody approved a redesigned SF Warrant Officer Basic Course, or WOBC.

The new WOBC is designed to reduce overall training time and administrative wait time, and eliminate redundant training by giving SF noncommissioned officers credit for their training and leadership experiences. The first course will be offered at Fort Bragg, N.C., beginning in July 2006. Further, the new training schedule will put Soldiers back in the force in a more efficient manner, while reducing the civilian-career juggling that Army National Guard Soldiers must do to fulfill their service obligation.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 (P) Doug Frank, chief warrant officer of the Special Forces Branch, Directorate of Special Operations Proponency, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, which is the proponent for the change, is excited about the program's impact on the 180A MOS in both the active component and National Guard. "I genuinely believe that this will have a significant positive impact on recruiting and accession, more so in the Guard, but we would like to see it through the roof in both components," said Frank. "We expect a 20-percent increase with just the approval of this new course."

Getting Soldiers to volunteer for duty as SF warrant officers has been problematic. For the past nine years, the National Guard has been at 30-percent strength, while the active Army has seen its numbers slipping. Frank and Chief Warrant Officer 4 William Best, the National Guard liaison at SWCS, agree that there are a number of issues at the root of the problem, but they believe the new WOBC is a big step in the right direction.

Historically, Soldiers volunteering for SF warrant duty could spend between 34 and 38 weeks away from their respective units while undergoing training and administrative wait times. Even while Soldiers were on administrative wait time, they were not deployable. Under the new course, the training takes 15 weeks. "This new course will allow us to return these leaders to the force in an efficient manner," said Franks.

In order to become SF warrant officers, Soldiers make application and gain the endorsement of their chain of command and the senior warrants in their command. Their applications are passed on to DSOP for a review of their records and an endorsement before being forwarded to the U.S. Army Recruiting Command for a selection board. If selected, the individual is then put on training status. The process varies slightly for the National Guard: Instead of being boarded at USAREC, a predetermination request goes to DSOP, followed by a Federal Recognition Board at the state level.

Until last year, Soldiers selected for warrant-officer training were required to either attend the operations-and-intelligence portion of the SF Advanced Noncommissioned Officer Course or the 18F, intelligence sergeant, course--a 13-week course--prior to beginning their warrant-officer training. During the summer of 2005, the Directorate of Training and Doctrine at SWCS, at the direction of SWCS's commandant, Major General James W. Parker, performed a critical-task review board on the Special Forces warrant officer basic and advanced courses. That review resulted in the elimination of the intelligence-training prerequisite in March 2005, because it consolidated intelligence training within the WOBC.

Once Soldiers completed the intelligence training, they were then given orders to attend the six-week Warrant Officer Candidate School at Fort Rucker, Ala. Students who had already completed the Primary Leadership Development Course or new Warrior Leader Course only had to attend four of the six weeks. At the end of the WOCS, Soldiers were given a conditional appointment to warrant officer.

Allowing credit for previous training, education and experience as a senior SF NCO is at the heart of the new initiative. The WOCS was designed for students coming straight out of basic training. Frank said that the profile of the SF WO applicant is uniquely different from that of Soldiers in any other MOS in the Army. The typical SF Soldier who is a candidate for warrant officer is in the rank of sergeant first class, has an average of 13 years of active federal service, has spent an average of five years on an SF operational detachment, has at least two to four tours as a direct ground combat leader, and has graduated from BNCOC. At least 50 percent of the Soldiers have also graduated from ANCOC.

Frank explained that SF Soldiers have a wide range of skills, experiences and training that make the shorter training possible. By the time Soldiers graduate from the SFQC, they have had training in PLDC, BNCOC and SERE, as well. DOTD conducted a comparison of WOCS, the SFQC, SF PLDC, BNCOC and SERE that showed that SF Soldiers have already been trained in the majority of the skills taught at WOCS.

[C-M-R]

Anyone heard of any team captains becoming warrant officers, possibly to spend more time on an A team?

Once in a while but not very often. Mostly when a guy gets RIF'd. That's an old thing though and isn't happening now.

[steeve20]

In the Guard it happens occasionally. Just had a Maj go warrent after he finished his company command time.