REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- The U.S. Army Materiel Command hosted its' monthly Warrant Officer Professional Development meeting Thursday at Toftoy Hall here.

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Darren Cook, Army Materiel Command's command chief warrant officer, hosted the professional development meeting. Cook serves as an advisor to the command, which develops and delivers materiel readiness solutions to ensure globally dominant land force capabilities.

He began by reminding the attendees that these meetings are opportunities to invest in one another and share knowledge.

"This type of meeting is a core part of our heritage." said Cook. "It is how we continue to grow and share information. The WOPD meetings can be the key to solving complex problems and coming up with viable readiness solutions."

Nearly 25 warrant officers from active, guard and reserve component as well as retirees attended to learn more about the Logistics Support Activity. LOGSA is the Army's trusted source for readiness information.

Chief Warrant Officer 5 John Beck, deputy for the Army Expert Authorized Stockage List (ASL) Team, led the session and gave a capability overview of the Production Support Center and the Expert ASL Team at LOGSA.

"We are supposed to be subject matter experts in our craft, our property book, our warehouse management; and we are also supposed to fully understand the tools LOGSA develops," said Beck.

Warrant officers make up less than three percent of the total Army strength and serve as technical experts in 17 branches and 63 different military occupational specialties.

"As I travel to units around the Army, I educate others on who we are, what we do, and how we enable readiness across the battlefield," said Cook during the briefing. "We have a tremendously large organization with over 64,000 personnel and several MSCs [major subordinate commands]; it is mind boggling the training, capability and capacity that we have. This information will help me tremendously."

There are approximately 85 warrant officers working on Redstone Arsenal.