The Navy discontinued appointments to the rank of Warrant Officer (WO1) and its associated pay grade (W-1) from 1975 until 1990, the year it established the Chief Warrant Officer Specialty of Technical Nurse and revived the WO1 rank and W-01 pay grade for a brief period. By the turn of the millennium, there were no active-duty Sailors serving in the rank.
But a shortage of experts with hands-on Cyber Warfare experience led the Navy to re-establish the rate and rank in 2018 with the creation of Cyber Warrant Officers. Though briefly open to Sailors in the Cryptologic Technician Networks (CTN) service specialty and Information Systems Technicians who had graduated the Masters of Applied Cyberspace OPS program at Naval Postgraduate School, the rank is now accessible only by CTN Sailors in the E-5 pay grade with between six and twelve years time in service who also hold of four NECs (H13A, H14A, H15A, or H16A).
The design of the Warrant Officer 1 White Combination Cap reflects the grade’s status between Noncommissioned and Commissioned; Warrant Officers 1 were appointed by the Secretary of the Navy rather than being commissioned by the President. In almost every other way, however, Warrant Officers 1 were regarded as Officers, rating salutes and courtesies and wearing Officer-style uniforms. For example, the decorative chin strap on the Warrant Officer’s Combination Cap is synthetic gold, setting the wearer above Chief Petty Officers whose chin straps are black.
A glance at the Warrant Officer cap device reveals a design that embodies the Warrant Officer’s unique position in the rank structure: its two gold crossed and fouled anchors make up the foundation of the cap device worn by Commissioned and Chief Warrant Officers. Their cap device, on the other hand, adds a silver Navy Eagle perched upon a silver shield to the design; not only to do the additional components reflect greater responsibility, but silver is also a sign of higher rank than gold.
More U.S. Navy Warrant Officer 1 Caps / Cap DevicesKhaki Combination Cap