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Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 5

W-5 Warrant Officer, U.S. Marine Corps
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How to get promoted to Chief Warrant Officer 5 History of the Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 5 Rank

A Chief Warrant Officer 5 is a Warrant Officer in the United States Marine Corps at DoD paygrade W-5.

Warrant Officers have their origins in the US Navy. They were those who had essential specialized skills, but lacked the proper "breeding" and "connections" to receive Commissions. The USMC began giving Quartermasters, Law Clerks, and Master Gunners "Warrants" instead of Commissions in WWI, which gave them rank above Senior NCOs but below Commissioned Officers. Today, the Warrant Officer community is extremely small and tight-knit.

Want to learn more? Read about the Marine Corps' Chief Warrant Officer 5 rank on Military-Ranks.org.


History of the Marine Corps

As far back as the Revolutionary War, Marines were known as Naval Infantry, and were assigned to ships to repel boarders, assault land-based targets, and discipline unruly Sailors. In WWI and WWII, Marines very successfully augmented Army units in war theaters throughout the world, with their most brutal and historic fighting on islands in the Pacific. In contrast with the Army, the Marines were not originally made to be self-sufficient to fight land wars for long periods of time. Doctors, Chaplains, and Medics who deploy with Marines are all Navy Sailors.