FORT LEE, Va. - Warrant Officers are the technical experts of their fields, often called upon to provide the knowledge required to successfully complete tough missions. In order for these specialized experts to complete their job, they have to continually better themselves professionally.
That was the purpose of the Sustainment Warrant Officer Conference held here May 9. The day-long event, part of the Sustainment Week 2011, provided more than 80 warrant officers from around the Army the opportunity to gather, share information and look to the future.
Sustainment Week provided a platform for idea and information sharing and included the Sustainment Commanders' Conference as well as the Association of the United States Army Sustainment Symposium and Exposition and Combined Logistics Excellence Awards ceremony.
"We were bringing senior Army leaders here who were a part of the logistics and sustainment community - generals, colonels and sergeants major. I wanted their warrant officer teammate to come here as well," said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Michael J. Wichterman, Sr., Combined Arms Support Command senior warrant officer advisor. "We wanted to feed them information on what the next phase of leader development, training and resourcing was going to be in the Army."
Senior officer perceptions, future leader development and the Profession of Arms campaign seemed to be popular topics as Wichterman had 35 confirmed participants within the first two weeks after sending out invitations.
"When I put out the invite for them to accompany their senior leaders here, I was just overwhelmed with the response I received," Wichterman said. "The responses were 'I'm coming and I will be there' so I knew we were hitting on the right themes."
Subject experts such as Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ron Galloway, warrant officer advisor to the 37th Army chief of staff, and Chief Warrant Officer 5 Judy Stephens from Training and Doctrine Command G-3/5/7, provided the level of information participants wanted to take back to their commands.
"The big thing about this conference was the panel of briefers we had here. It brought the information from the horse's mouth about policies and subjects that affect the warrant officer corps," said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Tom Wilson, Transportation School regimental warrant officer. "It was a great atmosphere to collaborate and share information on how we're moving into the future."
After this year's success, Wichterman said he hopes to make the conference even bigger and increase attendance.
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