How do you address female warrant officers?

CWO3 Dennis M. - Heh, heh, heh. Right on about address a NAVY CWO as "Chief". While I was in (as as enlisted), I addressed them them all as "Sir".

LCDR (Join to see) - You are so correct. The other services make warrants out of thin air, we in the Navy had to be a CPO for at least 3 or 4 years, and had to have well over a dozen years service. On my last ship, the XO had his warrants seated at the wardroom table just after the LCDR Department heads and then the seating went down from there, LT's, LTJG, and Ensign and that is important, because on that ship the food was served family style, so if we had chicken, the XO got to pick first the department heads second and the warrants third. So if the supper was chicken, the poor ensign at the end got the chicken back! And we got to choose our state rooms after the Department heads pick out the ones they wanted.

CSM Michael Poll - I've seen CWO's go off on some young soldier for calling them Chief, and I've seen 1SG's do the same for being called TOP. Always pissed me off.. I always considered it a sign of respect..

"Going off' on ANYONE is a mark of moral and PHYSICAL COWARDICE. HIDING behind ones rank is pure pettiness - and COWARDICE.

Can't go wrong here!

There you go! The Correct way......why didn't anyone else think of that.

Sgt Quick, What is shown here is exactly what I was taught on the proper address to a Warrant Officer when i was a Cadet at Bordentown Military Institute. The program was Army and on the school staff there was Chief Warrant Officer, W4 He was addressed as Mister. That was taught all over the U.S. Army at that time. A few years later when became a member of the U.S. Air Force I worked for a CWO, W4 and once again We were instructed to address an Warrant Officer as Mister. Up until recently I have never heard of any chief Warrant Officer being addressed as chief, only Chief Petty Officer in the Navy or a Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force was addressed as Chief. The proper address for a Warrant Officer has not changed despite the fact it has been used more recently. Its like calling a First Sergeant top, it been done a long time but that is unofficial and not actually the proper address within the Army, Air Force or Marines all of which have First Sergeants. The proper address is First Sergeant, not Top or First Shirt which I have heard over the period of the last five decades or more.

Best answer, best answer format. Would refer to for correct answers again. +1

Thank you, SFC Calmes. 

SFC Calmes, Its nice to see someone that actually referred to the Army Regulations for the proper address. It nice to know someone knows the proper place to find the correct information. There is a regulation for almost anything You can think of but they need to be referenced for the correct and final word. i don't know the answer to everything and although I'm Air Force retired, I know where to find things in AFIs, (Air Force Instructions) which used to be AFRs, (Air Force Regulations) or AR (Army Regulations) they can all be found on line even if You have no access to paper, hard copy Regulation sets. That also holds true for other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Check



I believe the 600-20 extract above is out of date. The last 600-20 that I saw (6 Nov 2014) annotated Mr., Miss, Mrs. And Ms. "Mister" used for women Warrant Officers went out in the 80's I believe.

Lol!
And that’s why there is ‘Ms’ as a salutation... so that if you’re not sure if we are married (Mrs.) or single (Miss) you can still be completely respectful in your salutation.

I believe Warrant Officers are the only ‘rank’ that have the distinction of being addressed by the otherwise strictly civilian prefixes cited here. (Personally, it’s not the way I would like to be addressed.)

Branch and field/specialty generally play a cultural role in whether or not a warrant officer is also addressed as Chief. For example, in an Aviation unit there are so many warrant officers, because of the high number of pilots, that they would seldom be called Chief. Whereas, in an Engineering unit, where there may be only one or two to achieve that rank, it is highly respectful, and common, to be addressed as ‘Chief’. I have always been addressed that way by those I have worked with since becoming a warrant officer.

I think that the distinction in how warrant officers are addressed is a solid reflection of how we stand in the gap - bridging the two sides of enlisted and officer.

Aloha!