Photo By Sgt. Jennifer Amo | Maj. Gen. William Walker acting Commanding General, District of Columbia National...... read more read more
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 7, 2017) – During an eventful drill weekend, the District of Columbia National Guard held a command chief warrant officer, or CCWO, change of responsibility ceremony at the D.C. Armory.
It was a day filled with “attention to orders,” several renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “The Army Goes Rolling Along,” for various ceremonies including changes of command, promotions, and a retirement. These benchmarks symbolize growth, progression, and new chapters. Command Chief Warrant Officer 5 Janice L. Fontanez, the fourth CCWO in D.C. National Guard history, closed out the weekend as she relinquished command to incoming command chief, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Michael R. Jewett.
Jewett, the D.C. National Guard's fifth CCWO, assumed the responsibility of warrant officers in the D.C. National Guard. He previously served as the 7th Aviation Standardization Officer and the G-3 Senior Warrant Officer with the Army National Guard at National Guard Bureau. Fontanez, the outgoing Command Chief Warrant Officer, was the first female officer to hold the position of Command Chief Warrant Officer in the D.C. National Guard, recruited many enlisted personnel to the warrant officer ranks during her time of leadership with the organization or almost the past two years.
“I engaged enlisted Soldiers every chance I had,” Fontanez said. “And if I didn’t know you, I stopped to talk to you about the warrant officer program and the opportunities here in the District of Columbia. I picked up a lot of enlisted personnel here, and a lot of them have become warrant officers.”
This appointment highlights CW5 Jewett’s illustrious career which ranged from field artillery to aviation with over 5,000 hours of flight time, with plenty of secondary education and military education as well. The Command Chief Warrant Officer serves as key advisor to the DCNG Commanding General on all items of concern to the warrant officer ranks, including accession, evaluations, retention, and professional development.
“We need to make sure we’re utilizing our warrant officers in the proper roles and responsibilities,” Jewett said. “We want to use that technical expertise as an asset to the best of our ability. Commanders need warrant officers to be available and accessible to provide continuity and expertise to give them guidance and recommendations, so they can make the best leadership decisions that are possible.”
After the ceremony, a receiving line was held on the drill floor to welcome Jewett to the D.C. National Guard. When asked about his new position, he explained that he wants the warrant officers to think more on a strategic level. By using a “lemons to make lemonade” metaphor, Jewett clarified the need for warrant officers to think of the bigger picture, by figuring out all of the ingredients to provide commanders the answers to complete an entire mission, rather than just every individual task.
“That warrant officer is an expert in their field and is someone for everyone else to emulate, demonstrating what right looks like,” Jewett said. “I want leaders and all individuals to look at the warrant officer as one of those respected individuals, and not an afterthought.”
Speaking specifically about his experience in aviation, Jewett said the warrant officers are the instructors, the teachers, the maintenance and safety pilots, instructor pilots, who train everyone in aviation units. He talked about how the various positive and negative experiences with warrant officers have changed over time, due to the never-ending professional training of senior leaders during his time at NGB.
Jewett could have made his career as a mentor for warrant officers in the active component, but he chose to apply his leadership and experience to the National Guard for many reasons.
“I still have the desire, the drive, to continue to educate and train, with my civilian secondary education, teaching high school kids,” Jewett said. “My military and aviation experience is as a standardization instructor pilot and examiner, a professional trainer. I enjoy working with people, am passionate about warrant officers and am trying to get them to the next level.”
As Command Chief Warrant Officer at the D.C. National Guard, I want us to meet mission, in successions and retention. We have a new part of the organization that’s growing the 311 MOS (Criminal Investigation Division – CID), a major blip on the radar is accessioned into that career field. Educating the senior leaders, commander, and NCO’s how to properly utilize their warrant officers, and focusing on warrant officer training into their proper PME (professional military education), and setting them up for success with their evaluations, their positions, roles and responsibilities. So, the top three are the mission, education, and warrant officer professional development.
“He is the right fit,” Fontanez said. “He really cares about this organization, and I feel like he’s really going to take this organization to the next step.”
During her remarks, Fontanez said she hoped to have opened the eyes of this organization about what warrant officers bring to the table.
“I think the Soldiers here feel there’s been an awakening that was not present before, and that alone will make CW5 Jewett successful because Soldiers are going to come to him.”
Now that Fontanez is retiring from her key advisory role to the Commanding General, her outlook on what is next is still a work in progress.
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” she said. “There’s always things to do, like community service…I’ll never sit down. I have a lot more to do, just trying to figure it out, where I’m going.”
One only has to walk around among the National Guardsmen at the D.C. Armory to see many newly appointed Warrant Officers who have prior enlisted service. They stepped up and took charge of their careers to do something more. CW5 Fontanez accomplished this goal which will be further nurtured under Jewett’s leadership and experience.
"She's done a lot for this organization,” Jewett said about Fontanez. “We still have a bit of a way to go, but she’s accomplished a lot here.”
| Date Taken: | 05.07.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.09.2017 19:46 |
| Story ID: | 233230 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON, DC, US |
| Hometown: | ATHENS, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 537 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Incoming Command Chief Warrant Officer to take D.C. National Guard to new heights, by SGT Adrian Shelton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT