Founded in 1972, the USAWOA was incorporated as a not-for-profit association in Virginia on 7 November 1974, and in 1985 became a charter member of The Military Coalition (TMC). On June 23, 2021 the IRS notified the association that it was recognized under Section 501(c)(19), as a non-profit Veterans Service Organization (VSO), effective February 24, 2021.
The three words in the association’s logo predominantly define its mission of advocacy on behalf of the Warrant Officers in all three components of the Army: Professionalism, Representation, and Recognition. The founders of the USAWOA saw the Warrant Officer Corps of the early 1970s as a disjointed group of technical experts with little or no standardization in the area of professional development and sought to change this.
From the beginning the USAWOA has worked within the Army system to encourage the development of an evolving system of standardized professional development for Warrant Officers to complement their superior technical knowledge and skills with increasing levels of leadership development. Simultaneously, it developed and encouraged sources of recognition of Warrant Officer excellence both inside the association and throughout the Army.
TMC provided the USAWOA with tremendous resources as a result of its newfound confederation with other military service organizations, with which it pooled their combined resources and influence. This gave the USAWOA the ability, through the TMC, to expand its representation of its members into the legislative arena. The results were astounding, achieving multiple legislative victories in the advancement of Warrant Officers in multiple areas including: education, pay and allowances, commissioning, W5 pay-grade authorization, and development of Secretary of the Army-chartered Senior Warrant Officer leadership.
The USAWOA’s philosophy has always been that recognition gained is directly proportional to value added. Every one of its members can be proud that its brief history – of little more than 40 years – has decisively impacted a remarkable four-decade evolution of Army Warrant Officers into the indispensible cohort of professional, technical, commissioned Leaders that they are today. To this day, the USAWOA remains the only military service organization thoroughly devoted to the welfare of Army Warrant Officers –serving, former, and retired – and their families.
