FORT RUCKER, Ala. -- Maj. Gen. Jon L. Trost discussed the Army's Warrant Officer program's future at the inaugural Warrant Officer Summit, June 9.
Trost, deputy commanding general, Army National Guard, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, spoke to a group of 60 active duty as well as senior warrant officers from the Army Reserve and National Guard at the Seneff Building.
"From the Guard's perspective, the warrant officer corps is not growing as fast as it should," he said. "We're part of the biggest training institution in the world - the Army - but in my mind, we still cling on to some of our legacy standards of the Cold War with the idea this input into our warrant officer corps has to be (a certain way)."
One purpose of the first Warrant Officer Summit was to bring warrant officer leadership together to determine what could be done to make the program better for current and future warrant officers, according to Col. Mark Jones, Warrant Officer Career College commandant.
"The legacy mindset is one that warrant officers aren't leaders, they're just technical experts," he said. "That's slowly starting to change. With that change comes a reevaluation of what we expect of our warrant officers and how we educate them to meet that expectation."
Warrant officers from across the nation attended Trost's lecture. Command Chief Warrant Officer, Army Reserve, Chief Warrant Officer 5 James Thompson visited from the Office of the Chief of Army Reserve in Washington, D.C., and said he felt the meeting was informative.
"This has been a great opportunity to get involved in the process of bringing Army warrant officers from where we were in the legacy force to where we need to be in the future," he said. "A big part of my job is supporting the recruiting effort of Army Reserve warrant officers and working with training institutions to make sure we give them the best possible training we can. I think the best thing (Trost) said was to seek out civilian education and continue with military education."
Trost received a bachelor's degree in industrial technology education from Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky., in 1972. He was commissioned as a field artillery officer in June 1974 after attending the state officer candidate school. Prior to his current assignment, he served as the assistant adjutant general, Plans/Operations, Minnesota Army National Guard and assistant division commander-maneuver, 34th Infantry Division.
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