ALC - Advanced Leadership Course this used to be called BNCOC, this is just another course to help keep the NCO's on track with what is expected of them and help them excel in their ranks.
BNCOC - Basic Non-Commissioned Officer Course, now called ALC
WOC - Warrant Officer Candidate School - The school that the soldier attends to become a Warrant Officer after being selected.
A Warrant Officer in the Army is pretty much a specialist in the MOS (Job) he is in.
On the WOC website this is their definition:
In 2005, the Department of the Army developed a new definition to encompass all warrant officer specialties and grades.
"The Army WO is a self–aware and adaptive technical expert, combat leader, trainer, and advisor. Through progressive levels of expertise in assignments, training, and education, the WO administers, manages, maintains, operates, and integrates Army systems and equipment across the full spectrum of Army operations. Warrant Officers are innovative integrators of emerging technologies, dynamic teachers, confident warfighters, and developers of specialized teams of soldiers. They support a wide range of Army missions throughout their career. Warrant officers in the Army are accessed with specific levels of technical ability. They refine their technical expertise and develop their leadership and management skills through tiered progressive assignment and education."
(DA Pamphlet 600-3, p. 3-9)
It's parallel to being an Officer. While an Officer deals with more administrative things, a WO deals with more MOS based duties.
This quote from the same website as mentioned above is a little bit more enlightening:
"The Army Warrant Officer Corps is comprised of over 25,000 men and women of the active Army and reserve components. Warrant officers are technical experts that manage and maintain increasingly complex battlefield systems. They enhance the Army's ability to defend our national interests, and to fight and win our nations wars.
Candidates who successfully complete Warrant Officer Candidate School are appointed in the grade of Warrant Officer One. When promoted to Chief Warrant Officer Two, warrant officers are commissioned by the President and have the same legal status as their traditional commissioned officer counterparts. However, warrant officers remain single-specialty officers whose career track is oriented towards progressing within their career field rather than focusing on increased levels of command and staff duty positions."
Hope that helps :) I tend to forget that not everyone in the military knows how the Army works and not everyone knows about the military. So if I tend to go off into a military lingo rant, just real me and and say "What the heck does all this mean??" LOL!
Now to wake up Eli, get him ready and head out to the Preschool!! I'll be writing up my "review" when I return! Wish me luck!
Thanks! It sounds like an awesome opportunity for him and for your family! Hope it all works out :)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how some military things are really the same and some are so different. I don't think the AF really has the equivalent of a Warrant Officer but I can understand a lot of the other talk once the acronyms are explained (like MOS - in the AF I think it's called an AFSC).