Fort Sill celebrates 105th birthday of its ‘quiet professionals’

They are the “quiet professionals” of the Army. But when they talk, commanders listen.

Fort Sill on Tuesday morning celebrated the 105th birthday of the U.S. Army’s Warrant Officer Corps during a ceremony in Snow Hall, 1210 Schimmelpfennig Road.

Warrant officers are highly-skilled specialty officers. They rank above enlisted members and non-commissioned officers, but below commissioned officers. While they can and do command detachments, units, aircrafts, armored vehicles, etc., their primary responsibility is to serve as technical experts and to advise commanders and organizations in their respective fields of expertise.

“It’s the best career decision I’ve ever made,” Chief Warrant Officer 5 James M. Bashore, who just celebrated 40 years of service, said. “I was a staff sergeant when I was approached with the idea of becoming a warrant officer. I applied, I got accepted, the rest is history.”

Bashore recalled the first system he worked at. It was the AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radar, which was developed in the 1970s. It is still in service, along with Bashore, who, at the age of 57, is the oldest warrant officer on Fort Sill.

As the oldest warrant officer, Bashore was tasked with cutting the cake during the birthday celebration, together with the youngest warrant officer on Fort Sill, Warrant Officer 1 Charles Scott, 28, and Brig. Gen. Shane Morgan, acting commander of the Fires Center of Excellence.

“They’re the quiet professionals, the subject matter experts,” Morgan said during his speech. “Senior leaders listen when the warrant officer talks.”

Morgan recalled when he first was responsible for aviation readiness.

“The chief warrant officer came to me and said ‘We go through it as many times as you need.’ They taught me, they trained me, they listened to me, they never failed me,” Morgan said, adding that “it’s never been a more exciting time to be an air artillery defender,” but, addressing the warrant officers in the room, “we need your help.”

The position of a warrant officer, according to Morgan, is in high demand amid the U.S. Army’s growth. This is also the impression of Bashore, who argued that technological advances would require a lot more technical training, for examples when it comes to hypersonic missiles.

“We’ll expand,” he said.