FORT KNOX, Ky. –
The Army held its 5th Annual Warrant Officer Accessions Summit, here, July 16-18, to focus on the future of the warrant officer recruiting and accessions process.
Warrant officers from across the Army came together to discuss this small, but vital, in-service recruiting mission.
This is the largest summit to date with over 65 attendees from all three Army components – Regular Army, Army Reserve and National Guard – coming together to bring awareness and insight into their own recruiting challenges and to work together to improve. Any changes made to policy and process affect all three components.
“This is a great venue to bring together warrant officer and NCO leadership from the active duty Army, National Guard and Reserves,” said the Chief Warrant Officer of Recruiting Command CW5 Troy DeGolyer. “It allows us to focus on warrant officer recruiting, identify challenges and develop solutions to each problem set. We are getting after the Army's warrant officer recruiting mission in a collective and collaborative way.”
Recruiting is challenging in any capacity, but when it comes to recruiting from inside the force, the competition gets a lot fiercer as the applicant pool gets smaller. But that hasn’t stopped the Warrant Officer Recruiting Company.
The Warrant Officer Recruiting Company completed their volume mission on June 1, 2019. This is the fastest ever fiscal year completion in the recent mission growth environment. The volume mission has doubled since fiscal year 2014. As of July 15, they are at 115% and still growing.
The Warrant Officer Recruiting Team, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is tasked with recruiting highly qualified in-service applicants who demonstrate character, competence and commitment to serve as joint and combined arms capable Army warrant officers. The future of that mission is the driving force behind the accessions summit.
“We have a great group of warrant officer professionals who are the Army's technical experts in their respective fields, DeGolyer said. “They are dedicated to the Army's mission and proud to serve as a warrant officer in the U.S. Army.”
Summit discussions covered a wide variety of topics: the warrant officer recruiting team, packet submission, processing and trends, sister service conversions, initiatives, prerequisites, selection boards, Army National Guard accessions trends and challenges, Army Reserve accessions trends and challenges, waivers, FY 19 trends and challenges and the upcoming FY 20 mission.
“Each year, we break new ground with our free and direct discussions,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Guidry Commander, Warrant Officer Recruiting Company. “Huge improvements to our recruitment efforts across all Army components are directly linked to the cooperation and decisions that come from this Summit.”