In the Marine Corps, there are essentially two types of Warrant Officers: Marine Gunners and everyone else, i.e., Technical Warrant Officers. The designation of certain Warrant Officers as Marine Gunner is made by Marine Corps Recruiting Command, and they constitute an elite group: there are only around a hundred on active duty in the Corps at any one time. Part of the reason is the stringent qualification requirements: Only Gunnery Sergeants (E-7) with a minimum of sixteen years time in service are considered for the position.
Marine Gunners are chosen through a CWO2 Marine Gunner selection board, which picks qualified regular Marine for appointment to the permanent grade of Chief Warrant Officer 2 in the Military Occupational Specialty of MOS 306 Infantry Weapons Officers. Those selected are officially designated Marine Gunner—it is not a nickname.
As the name implies, Marine Gunners are weapons experts and specialists, extremely well-versed in the tactical use of all weapons deployed by Marine infantry units. As such, they often serve as advisors to tactical commanders, as well acting as consultants and experts on the development and acquisition of new infantry weapons.
A gold-colored rendering of an exploding bomb, the dress insignia worn by Marine Gunners is about 1.25” in height and is worn on both shoulder straps of the dress coat with the “burst” of the bomb facing inboard and the bottom of the bomb .75” from the inboard edge of the insignia of grade. The Marine Gunner service insignia is black and is worn the shoulder straps of the All-Weather Coat, the Service Coat, Field Coat, Tanker Jacket, and Blue Dress Sweater.