"I would say it's when you've gained the experience that you need to justify to the selection board that you're ready to take on that responsibility," he said. He became a warrant officer in March 2017, shortly after passing the 14-year anniversary of his enlistment and then, along with all the other new warrant officers, went through both the six-week Warrant Officer Basic Course to qualify as a 670 Alpha and then the six-week Medical Logistics Officer Course for 70 Kilos.Ĭervantes said the timing of this could vary. I wanted to have greater influence to improve some of the areas that I felt that I could improve on, or to lead different departments," he said.Ĭervantes submitted his packet when he was at the 13.5-year mark of his Army career and didn't get word back for about six months. "At that point in my career, I wanted to have an impact on the career field. He taught advanced individual training for 68 Alphas at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, when Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Hayes, the program director for the biomedical equipment technician school, talked to several of the NCO instructors about taking their careers to the next level. The best time in a medical maintenance tech's career to make the transition might be when you're a staff sergeant with at least two assignments under your belt, Cervantes said, and that's what he was when he was approached about becoming a warrant officer. In his case, that hunger took the form of wanting to do more and to improve the area he was in. As I moved up in the ranks and got more mentorship from senior NCOs (noncommissioned officers) and from warrant officers, I became more driven, more focused on the direction I wanted to take my career, what I needed to do to get promoted, to essentially be hungry for more," Cervantes said. And it always appealed to me, but as a young man I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do with my career. "I always saw the warrant officers as the elite. "Our MOS directly translates into a 670 Alpha for warrant officers, so every one of my OICs (officers in charge) has always been a warrant officer, and I can transition directly into that, from my career field to theirs, to this one that I'm in now."Īs he moved up in rank, he always felt the influence of warrant officers who served as officers in charge of the biomedical equipment management branch. "I was a 68 Alpha, a medical maintenance technician," Warrant Officer 1 Ernest Cervantes explained. 5, 2018) - Why be a warrant officer?įort Sill Medical and Dental Activity's acting chief of logistics has an answer for that: in his military occupational specialty (MOS) it goes with the territory.
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