The gold and silver color bars found on today’s Chief Warrant Officer insignia in the United States Navy trace their origins back to 1886, three years after the Navy gave Warrant Officers specific corps or specialty devices for the first time. To determine the grade of a Warrant Officer, the Navy used a very broad standard: those with 20 or more years or service wore a gold device, while those with less than 20 wore silver.
This bifurcated system lasted until the passage of the Career Compensation Act in 1949 established four grades of Warrant Officers in the Navy: Warrant Officer 1, and Chief Warrant Officer 2, 3, and 4. For the insignia of grade to be worn on caps and collars, the Navy turned to its previous system of silver and gold, with silver indicating seniority—or, in the new scheme, a higher rank—over gold; to accommodate the four grades, the Navy implemented double bars that indicated higher rank than a single bar. Thus a single gold bar became the insignia of grade for the rank of Warrant Officer 1—until the Navy discontinued the rank in 1975. It was revived temporarily with the establishment of the Technical Nurse specialty in 1990, but by 1999 there were no active-duty personnel in the W-1 grade.
But the rank of Warrant Officer was resurrected in 2018 with the establishment of the Cyber Warrant Officer (WO1) rank and its associated pay grade of W-1. Intended to address the need to expand the Navy's Cyber warfare capabilities, the Cyber Warrant Officer has only one source rating, Cryptologic Techician Networks, and potential Warrant Officers must have reached the rank of Petty Officer Second Class (E-5) and have between six and twelve years time in service. They also must have at one of four NECs under their belts.
The Navy eliminated the grade completely in 1978, commissioning new officers at the grade of Chief Warrant Officer 2; nearly 25 years later, it would add the grade of CWO5 to bring the total number of Navy Warrant Officer grades back to four.
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