By: Staff Sgt. Artur Taradejna
CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq — U.S. Army Recruiting Command doctrine states that the purpose of the warrant officer is to serve in specific positions that require greater longevity than the duration of commanders and other staff officers. The extended length of these assignments results in increased technical expertise as well as the leadership and management skills that make them so effective for the Army.
Chief Warrant Officer Alfred Alexander, the battalion maintenance officer with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 749th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), and a Paso Robles, Calif., native, tries to embody the warrant officer standards as an adaptive technical expert, combat leader, trainer, and advisor to both enlisted and general commissioned officers.
“A warrant officer is a trainer and a mentor of soldiers,” said Alexander. “If you’re willing to learn, I’m willing to teach.”
He thinks a good candidate to join the warrant officer corps is a noncommissioned officer with 10 years of experience in his or her military occupational specialty with good technical ability.
“A warrant officer is a hands-on trainer,” said Alexander. “Most of us are from the enlisted side and went through the ranks, so we can relate to the soldier on the ground.”
The decision to go warrant is the best choice he ever made, he said.
“There were three reasons I decided to go warrant,” he said. “First was the encouragement from my command. Second was to fill the need of the shortage of warrant officers in the field of maintenance. And the third was the leadership potential I saw to train soldiers.”
Alexander began his career in the Army in 1982 after transferring from the Naval Reserves. He said the lack of opportunities in the Naval Reserves prompted him to join the Army side of the armed forces.
He began his Army career as a track vehicle mechanic. He served in a multitude of positions with artillery companies, forward support battalions and ordnance companies. This gave him the well rounded technical expertise that prepared him for the warrant officer corps.
In the year 2000, at the rank of sergeant first class, Alexander graduated from Warrant Officer Candidate School at Fort Rucker, Ala., where he became an ordnance warrant officer. Ordnance warrant officers are the Army’s premiere maintenance and logistics system experts, leaders, trainers, mentors, and advisors.
Alexander’s full-time job is as the electronics repair supervisor at Camp Roberts, Calif., where he also is the armament supervisor.