The Chief Warrant Officer position of Operations Technician was introduced in 1958—but precisely when it became
official depends on what source from the United States Navy you consider to be the most authoritative.
On page xii of the
Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps dated 1 January 1958, we see the Warrant Officer title of “Operations Technician” with an officer designator of 714 make its first appearance. But the September 1958 issue of
All Hands: The Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin eschews the Register and instead quotes BuPers Notice 1120, which was published on March 5. It announced that the primary path of advancement for Sailors in four ratings—Radarman (RD), Sonarman (SO), Signalman (SM), and Radioman (RM)—would be to Operations Technician for Warrant Officers and to Deck for Limited Duty Officers. The same BuPers notice also specified that the alternate path of advancement for Radarmen, Sonarmen, and Radiomen would be to CWO Electronics Technician or the LDO category of Electrician.
The source ratings for Operations Technician of course changed over the years as enlisted ratings were merged, established, disestablished, and renamed. After the revamping of the CWO and LDO programs in the mid-1970s, the title was Surface Operations Technician; the officer designator had been changed to its current number; 712x, and by 2011 there were just two source ratings: Operations Specialist (OS) and Sonar Technician Surface (STG).
Cryptologic Technician Technical (CTT) was soon added as a source rating (the last CWO Cryptologic Technician, 744X, was selected in 2003). Interestingly, the Navy announced the establishment of the Cyber Warrant Officer Community (743x) as a CWO path of advancement for Cryptologic Technicians in April, 2010, only to disestablish the 743x designator (along with 742x, 744x, and 745x) a little over four years later and replace it with a new 784x, Cyber Warrant, in the Information Dominance Community—which itself was redesignated Information Warfare Community.
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