By the time the Communications Warrant Officer specialty was disestablished in 2005, its insignia of four lightning bolts had been used on uniforms for almost a hundred years—and seven of those years were before the Coast Guard itself even existed.
Electricians and Electricians First Class serving in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service wore the distinctive four-bolt insignia on a CPO-style uniform from 1908 until 1915. It continued to be worn by First Class Electricians in the Coast Guard until 1920, when it was assigned to enlisted personnel in the Radioman rating. The lightning bolts were not used as a CWO insignia until 1924, when the Radio Electrician specialty was established.
The Warrant Officer specialty of Radio Electrician had a fairly long run, at least as far as CWO specialties are concerned: Forty-five years elapsed before it was merged into the Communications specialty in 1970. Oddly, the only historical document regarding Warrant Officer insignias on the Coast Guard’s Web site does not even list the Communications specialty, but a glance at the service’s 1991 uniform regulations lists the Communications CWO insignia as “four lightning bolts.”
The Communications specialty lasted about half as long as its predecessor Radio Electrician, due largely to the convergence of data delivery systems brought about by groundbreaking strides in digital technology. It was disestablished in 2005, with Guardsmen serving in the rating laterally moving into specialties such as Information Systems Management or Operations Systems Specialist.
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