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Warrant Officer Professional Development Day Held

Sgt. Patrick O’Flaherty, 444 MPAD

The first Warrant Officer Advisory Board professional development day was held on Nov. 2 at Fort Dix. Brig. Gen. Glenn K. Rieth, The Adjutant General set the tone of the day.

“ Presently we have 137 warrant officers but need another 40 to just maintain the current vacancies,” stated Brig. Gen. Rieth.

Chief Warrant Officer Rick Andrews and Command Chief Warrant Officer Al Curving organized the event around previous development day models with one major difference. Because warrant officers have such diverse backgrounds, roles and responsibilities it is difficult for their parent unit to justify time away from a critical drill weekend. So the development day assumed twin-working groups, one of a recruitment role and one of developing and mentoring the current warrant members so that the New Jersey Army National Guard has consistency and defined goals which every member of the warrant officer’s corps can practice or improve on, in their daily workday.

The meeting then divided into various working groups and provided 70 plus prospective future warrants with an insight into the life of a warrant officer.