U.S. Navy uniform regulations require all Officers, Commissioned and Warrant, to wear embroidered or sew-on cloth grade insignia on the shoulders of the Flight Suit. The insignia is the same size as that worn on the All-Weather Coat and is positioned so that it is about 5/8-inch from each shoulder seam and is centered fore and aft. Enlisted personnel authorized to wear the Flight Suit, on the other hand, do not wear rank insignia, but instead display their rank on the nametag centered on the left breast below the shoulder seam and above the slash pocket.
The rank of Chief Warrant Officer 5 has been in existence for only a tiny fraction of the Navy’s existence, this in spite of the fact that Warrant Officers have been a part of its personnel structure from the time the Continental Congress authorized the first Navy ships to be built. Congress established the grade of CWO 5 in 1994, but in doing so did not require the individual military services to incorporate it into their enlisted ranks (the Air Force has no Warrant Officers and the Coast Guard does not have the CWO 5 grade).
After deciding to incorporate the rank into its Warrant Officer program in 2002, the Navy announced that seventeen Chief Warrant Officers 4 had been chosen for elevation to the new grade in August 2003. The Navy’s first CWO 5—Food Service Officer Leon A. Cole—took his Oath of Office on 1 October 2003.