page_title: Warrant officer (United States)
section_title: Notable warrant officers
hierarchical_section_title: Warrant officer (United States) / Notable warrant officers
caption_attribution_description: English: Astronaut Tom Hennen getting ready to board the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
context_page_description: In the United States Armed Forces, the ranks of warrant officer are rated as officers above all non-commissioned officers, candidates, cadets, and midshipmen, but subordinate to the lowest officer grade of O‑1. This application differs from the Commonwealth of Nations and other militaries, where warrant officers are the most senior of the other ranks, equivalent to the U.S. Armed Forces grades of E‑8 and E‑9.
  Warrant officers are highly skilled, single-track specialty officers. While the ranks are authorized by Congress, each branch of the uniformed services selects, manages, and uses warrant officers in slightly different ways. For appointment to the rank of warrant officer one, normally a warrant is approved by the secretary of the respective service. However, appointment to this rank can come via commission by the service secretary, the department secretary, or by the commander-in-chief, but this is more uncommon. For the chief warrant officer ranks, these warrant officers are commissioned by the president. Both warrant officers and chief warrant officers take the same oath as regular commissioned officers.
context_section_description: CWO2/Chief Carpenter John Arnold Austin, USN
  FO Gene Autry, USAAF (Equivalent of WO1). (Flew C-109 in C-B-I, TV and Radio star)
  WO1 Floyd Bennett, USN (Medal of Honor)
  FO Jackie Coogan, USAAF (Equivalent of WO1) (Distinguished Flying Cross) (Glider Pilot in C-B-I, TV and Movie Star)
  CW5 David F. Cooper, USA (Distinguished Service Cross)
  CW4 Michael Durant, USA (Black Hawk Down)
  MAJ (was CW3) Frederick Edgar Ferguson, USA (Medal of Honor)
  CWO4 John W. Frederick, Jr., USMC (Navy Cross)
  James W. Hall, III, USA (convicted of espionage and stripped of rank)
  CW4 Thomas J. Hennen, USA (Astronaut)
  WO1 Olive Hoskins USA (the first female warrant officer)
  CW4 Oscar G. Johnson, USA (Medal of Honor)
  WO1 John W. Lang, USN (Navy Cross)
  WO1 Robert Mason, USA (best-selling author)
  CW2 Jason W. Myers, USA (Distinguished Service Cross)
  CW4 Michael J. Novosel, USA (Medal of Honor)
  CW5 Ralph E. Rigby, USA (last continuously serving draftee on active duty in the U.S. Army, retired in 2014)
  CW2 Louis R. Rocco, USA (Medal of Honor)
  Captain (was WO Machinist) Donald K. Ross, USN, awarded the first Medal of Honor of World War II
  MAJ (was WO1) Hugh Thompson, Jr., USA (Soldier's Medal recipient)
  WO1 Gore Vidal USA
  John Anthony Walker, Jr., USN (convicted of espionage and stripped of rank)
  CWO4 Henry Wildfang, USMC (Gray Eagle Award recipient for longest-serving naval aviator; only chief warrant officer in the history of U.S. Naval Aviation so honored)
  CWO4 Hershel W. Williams, USMC (Medal of Honor)
  Brig Gen Chuck Yeager, USAF (World War II USAAF flight officer, equivalent to WO-1)
  CW4 Keith Yoakum, USA (Distinguished Service Cross)
  CW3 Ronald D. Young Jr., USA (POW, game show contestant)
caption: CW4 Hennen getting ready to board the Space Shuttle Atlantis for STS-44
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