Congratulations, Nightmare 515, for creating the post chosen as Post of the Month by staff members. Thank you for this thoughtful contribution to the forum. Post 138, "MTV Poll: 88% of Millennials Think Affirmative Action is Unfair" in Current Events by Nightmare515. http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=357074&p=1063917426#post1063917426
Congratulations Nightmare 515. Excellent post and thanks for sharing that. Also thank you for your contribution to the board. Its appreciated. Falena
First and foremost, kudos on earning the Top Post monthly award. Second, being an admittedly nitpicky jerk here... From the post. The flyaway cost of a new build AH-64D Block III is $35.5M. The flyaway cost differs from another price metric, the weapon system cost. The weapon system cost, more commonly known as the procurement cost, is the total price of the aircraft. So the flyaway cost is the cost of making the aircraft, while the weapon system cost is the cost of buying the aircraft. I don't have that data handy as to the unitary weapon system cost of an Apache helicopter (assuming this is the attack helicopter you're referencing), but it is quite a bit more than $30M. Also to clarify the term Army officer. I'm assuming as you are an Army rotary wing aviator (WOMOS 153A), you're a warrant officer. A warrant officer is an officer who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, and a non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer, often by virtue of seniority.
You know it's really poor form to correct people when they have years of experience on any given subject than an armchair intellectual.
Ok ok 35.5 million dollar ones geez Herk lol Yes I am a Warrant Officer but we have Commissioned guys who fly as well. I usually leave out the Warrant part not to be deceitful but because most people have no idea what a Warrant Officer is. Most people in the military don't even know what a Warrant is or what our ranks look like. Whenever I go on the main base outside of the airfield people always stare at my chest for a few seconds and sort of twitch their arms wondering if they are supposed to salute those weird looking little squares or not lol. Outside of aviation there are very few Warrants. In all of my years as a ground guy I only actually saw 2 before going Aviation. My MOS is actually 152H. 153A is the MOS while in flight school. My lack of situational awareness is hilarious. I ran out of things to talk about in the other forums and randomly clicked on this one and saw this thread today. I spent all of this time wondering what the heck that little trophy thing was on my posts for the past month lol Thanks for the votes everyone, I honestly wasn't expecting anything like this...
Herkdriver is anything but an armchair intellectual. He actually has MUCH more real life experience in aviation than I do and his knowledge is welcomed and appreciated. Nothing wrong with pointing out the errors in my post. It leads to further clarification and a better understanding of the subject for those interested.
USAF got rid of warrant officers, the rank, in the 1950s. The only reason I know a little about it, from the Army aviation side of it, was that I considered the option of applying for WOCS after high school. So I read up on it and went so far as talking to an Army recruiter, but it went no further than that. The thread was in recognition of a solid post. My comment was unnecessary and made me appear as a "know-it-all," and I am far from knowing it all. I wanted to point out the aircraft you're responsible for is a complex, technologically advanced, and expensive piece of hardware. The way I worded it was closer to a Poindexter response than a compliment, so sorry for that.
It's not the comment, it's where you put it. It's out of place here, but would have been fine in the original thread.
Thanks for your service. I always found the Warrant Officer a bit odd. I get why we have them, but my command really wanted me to know the different between CWO2, CWO3, CWO4, and CWO5. My thing was what do you call a CWO2, CWO3, CWO4, CWO5? All Chief Warrant Officers. Seemed to me like it was just a pay grade thing, and that it would almost never be something I needed to know unless I found myself in dire straights and needed to know who had highest command - in which case, dude, there aren't enough CWOs that I'd find two on one raft haha.
All Warrant Officers are called "Mr" or "Ms" or "Sir" or ""Ma'am". So for example if you saw a Lt. Col you would call them Colonel so and so. But if you saw a WO1 or a CW5 you would call them "Mr" or "Ms" so and so. "Chief" is also acceptable and it what most people call Warrant Officers. WO1's aren't technically Chief Warrant Officers yet but everybody calls them Chief anyway. But yeah WO1-CW5 is just a pay grade thing. We are all called the same thing. Kinda like how you are still called "Sergeant" whether you are an E-5 or an E-7.
Actually where I was we called nearly all officers "Sir." I don't know if that's just Navy, but we never called Lieutenants LT or anything like that. Our Captain was even usually referred to as Sir.
Well we call officers Sir as well. It almost seems rude to address a field grade officer by their rank rather than Sir even though I think it's acceptable to do so. Rarely will you hear somebody say "Excuse me Colonel" unless they are a higher rank or something. The majority of people are going to say "Excuse me Sir". Most people call Lieutenants "L.T." if they get to know them. You won't see too many Privates walking around addressing random LT's as such but if he is your platoon leader or something and you know him then they will probably call him L.T. Rank structure can get weird in the military as you know. Especially when it comes to Warrant Officers. We outrank enlisted and commissioned out ranks us. However, thats where the blurry line gets drawn. Most Warrants are prior enlisted E-5's and above so then it becomes a thing of who really outranks who. The book says one thing but military society says another. I've seen plenty of CW2's and E-6's rip Lieutenants apart. I've seen a CW3 rip a Captain apart (Our Captains are O-3 not O-6). I've seen a Captains rip E-8's apart. It pretty much boils down to a respect thing. That's why I like being a Warrant. Nobody really bothers us and we don't bother each other. Most of us are on a first name basis with each other and the higher ranking Enlisted people don't bother us and neither does Commissioned brass. It's sort of like a fraternity stuck in purgatory in the Army completely oblivious to what everyone else has to go through. Like an old saying goes. We as Warrants have too much rank to get in trouble for anything and not enough rank to do anything. It's a win win situation lol. We have all of the luxuries of being an Officer yet none of the stress that comes with it.
