Leaders Make Leaders

The Accelerated Warrant Officer Candidate School

By CW3 Suzy Albert, CW4 Mickey Dickerson, and CW4 John Anderson

June 1, 2026 | Warrant Officer Journal, June 2026 Edition

Read Time: < 9 mins

“Don’t you want to see what we are capable of at our best?” A Warrant Officer Candidate (WOC) was pleading for a time extension to submit an academic assignment. What a privilege it is to have Soldiers who want to express their fullest potential. My response landed like a betrayal to him, “No. I want to see what you’re capable of at your worst.” A hard truth about warrant officership: who you are on your best day, in perfect circumstances and a comfortable environment, isn’t who you truly are. It’s who you are when you are exhausted, confused, frustrated, resource-poor, requirement-rich, and hemorrhaging time. Who you are in “inherently chaotic and uncertain” conditions (Department of the Army, 2025a). Who you are when it really matters, where the rubber meets the road, when it hits the fan – as a leader in operations.

So, what are warrant officer leaders supposed to be? The Army has a lot of ideas:

• DA Pam 600-3 defines a warrant officer (WO) (2023).
• ADP 6-22 (2019a) FM 6-22 (2022a) covers Army leadership attributes and competencies.
• FM 7-0 designates who we must be as trainers (2022b).
• AR 600-100 folds ethics into daily actions (2025b).
• FM 1 describes the connection to serving our country (2025c).
• FM 6-0 defines what we owe commanders as members of a staff (2022c).
• FM 5-0 tells us how to plan responsibly (2024).
• ADP 5-0 connects planning to the sacred responsibility of operations (2019b)
• ADP 6-0 calls on us to empower others (2019c).
• And on … and on… and on…

ADP 6-0, para 1-26, Principles of Mission Command (Clarifying Comment: Shared Understanding is meant to lead to Unified Action, designated below as 3a and 3b)

If you are good at your job (1. Competence), Soldiers trust you to get the job done right. Soldiers can rely on each other (2. Mutual Trust), understand the mission and culture (3a. Shared Understanding) and work towards the same goal (3b. Unified Action). The same goal is the desired end state (defined in the 4. Commander’s Intent). It is expressed in the order itself, but also in the way leaders communicate (5. Mission Orders). One of those ways, flexibility, stresses the outcome rather than the process to get the job done with good values, good judgment, and good action (6. Disciplined Initiative). When units enable these principles in training, daily activities, and standard practice, the commander is more capable of complex decision making in operations (7. Risk Acceptance).

What initiates this string of events? Competence. Competence isn’t given. It is a WO’s noble choice and continual pursuit.

The Accelerated Warrant Officer Candidate School (AWOCS) at Fort McClellan, Alabama excels at actionizing mission command within the context of MDO frameworks to develop warrant officer leaders. The AWOCS Course Manager, CW4 Bryan Otwell, manages his staff expertly. Through persistent unit training and continued education, he demands that leaders are learners. Through involved leadership and empowerment, he solidifies that leaders are teachers. Through intentional course flow, training environment cohesion, and holistic staff coordination, he ensures that leaders make leaders. The Course Manager’s leadership philosophy guides the AWOCS approach.

Same Vision, Different Strategy

This article does not compare or contrast effectiveness (whether financial or academic) between programs, and it is certainly not a competition for elevated standing. AWOCS thrives because of meaningful relationships and collaboration with 27 other organizations. This article is simply insight into the newest WOCS program, started in 2024. There are three different styles of conventional Army WOCS program:

1. The Traditional Program (conducted at 27 National Guard Regional Training Institutes (RTI)) is a National Guard-managed course for National Guard and Army Reserve students. This program is 26 training days, 15 of which are conducted consecutively, with an additional 10 days spread over five additional months on M Day status.
2. The Resident Program (conducted at Fort Rucker, Alabama) is a Regular Army-managed course for students of all three Components. This program is 25 training days, with weekends and holidays off, usually spanning five weeks.
3. The Accelerated Program (conducted at Fort McClellan, Alabama) is a National Guard-managed course that has historically accepted students from all three Components. This program is 26 training days in a row, no weekends or holidays off.

All conventional WOCS programs have similar staff positions for student interaction: Training, Advising, Coaching (TAC), instructor, support, and command staff. All programs achieve the same student outcomes. Same vision.

Operational environments across 28 total institutions are vastly different in OPTEMPO, class size, cadre size, and balance of resources and limitations. The AWOCS model has enabled the Army to capitalize on 20 years of successful execution of the RTI WOCS program. The accelerated model allows warrant officer candidates to complete the standard program of instruction, developed and managed by the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Career College, by combining Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the traditional RTI model into a 26-day program. This approach is challenging for both candidates and cadre but creates an opportunity for candidates to appoint to WO1 efficiently, ultimately reducing the amount of time ARNG and USAR candidates are away from their families and civilian employment. Different strategies.

Don’t Just Talk About It, Be About It

COL Kevin McHugh, current U.S. Army Warrant Officer Career College Commandant, directed institutional pursuit of “Candidate Led Strategy” (CLS) in 2022. This philosophical approach was formally published in local SOP during CW5 Docaser Bennett’s command of 1ST WOC (2023-2025). AWOCS published mission command-aligned tactics to pursue the CLS.

AWOCS cadre implements mission command by delineating between:

• Discipline versus control,
• Stress versus fear,
• Development versus punishment,
• Rigor versus rite of passage, and
• Tradition versus antiquated approaches.

This ideological approach actively engages WOCs, builds their critical and creative thinking, informs leader development, and empowers them to grow. The intent is to prime conditions so the school can create quality warfighters who are capable of successfully integrating, communicating, operating, leading, and advising in technologically advanced, kinetic, decentralized, large-scale armed conflict. This approach to CLS reflects development of disciplined initiative.

It demands WO leaders/cadre/instructors:

1. Offer opportunities (for success or failure) and
2. Provide timely, actionable feedback.

Over time, toggling these two actions develops:

1. Resilience for the relentless pursuit of orders and intent,
2. Judgment (predictive and reactive), and
3. Strong development of the habit of innovation and rejects mere compliance and learned helplessness.

The most difficult of these actions is allowing candidates opportunities to fail. Leaders are trained to ensure their teams are successful and provide guidance that ensures it. The CLS requires that WOCS cadre give candidates chances to make mistakes and learn in a safe environment. Figuratively, cadre must allow them to march in the wrong direction to learn from their decisions and only step in to provide guidance if they are about to march off a cliff. This approach allows candidates to understand their capabilities to expand them, understand their limitations to reduce them, and learn meaningfully from their mistakes so they can reenter the force more proficient. Through this process, candidates develop the skills and confidence to self-regulate (self-correct, self-motivate and self-control) and self-actualize (recognize their own abilities and potential).

Brilliant at the Basics

AWOCS clearly delineates tactics employed in two phases: Phase 1 (TD 1-TD 15), Phase 2 (TD 16-TD 26). There is a palpable difference in the approach, easily visualized by ADP 6-0, Figure 1-1 (2019).

During Phase 1 (more control), the first 15 training days, cadre exercises more control through specified tasks, foundational knowledge instruction, and team building activities. Consequences consist of corrective action that allow research, reflection, and introspection. Instruction entails 118 hours of acquainting students primarily to doctrine, Army strategy, foundational leadership expectations, and communications classes. Staff from both training environments (classroom learning, training environment application) support and reinforce learning through different tactics and environments.

Coordination is easily achieved in the AWOCS footprint. The classroom and TAC Officer, instructor, and command team offices are collocated in the same hallway, facilitating shared understanding via proximity and presence. It is common for instructors and TACs to co-counsel. In such, instructors can lend specificity of observations from the nine hours of academics each day to TAC-led leadership counseling or developmental event counseling. This phase often revolves around Bloom’s Taxonomy Cognitive Levels 1 (Rote Memorization/Remembering), Level 2 (Understanding), Level 3 (Application).

Phase 2 (less control) consists of deeper development of judgment, reflection, philosophical and advanced knowledge, mentorship, as well as developing an actionable plan to move forward into the force. This phase seeks to achieve Bloom’s Taxonomy Cognitive Levels 3 (Application), Level 4 (Analysis), and often Levels 5 6 (Evaluation Creation). Advanced cognitive levels are achievable due to the level of experience of many WOCs, via academic scaffolding, or accessing their rich former experiences to build knowledge upon what already exists rather than rewriting their Army knowledge. Students thrive in the challenge. This phase consists of 88 hours of advanced leadership, briefing, analysis, historical theory, and integration into the community.

Eat the Meat, Spit Out the Bones

These methods are, in spirit, applicable to any training environment or institution. If any approach resonates with you then please, like any good WO, steal tactically acquire it:

• Leaders make leaders: Develop faculty and staff as learners and teachers before students even arrive. Structuring daily tasks and responsibilities intentionally with mission command results in empowerment. Cadre buy-in to this guiding philosophy increases individual accountability, supports staff coordination, creates a cohesive learning environment, and results in more empowerment of developing WO leaders.
• Same vision, different strategy: Analyze (and balance) resources, requirements, limitations to help develop effective, sustainable procedures that meet the fullest spirit of the policies, vision, and mission.
• Don’t just talk about it, be about it: Seek out behaviors that are historically ingrained and confront them with courageous scrutiny. Honest assessment of comfort-state (historical approaches) versus current-state (effective modern approaches) support adjustments.
• Brilliant at the basics: Mission command empowers ideal student behaviors (resilience, judgment, innovation) and decreases undesirable behaviors (helplessness, compliance, avoidance), strengthening Soldier qualities for MDO.

Mission command is the heart of the AWOCS WO leader development philosophy: leaders are learners, leaders are teachers, and leaders make leaders. This is not just a sentiment, it is the AWOCS strategy. Neither students nor cadre are gifted perfection or comfort. Together they endure the 26-day experience while exhausted, potentially resource-poor, requirement-rich, hemorrhaging time, in demanding conditions, as leaders in operations.

Students’ first impression of Warrant Officer Candidate School at Fort McClellan

Above: Fort McClellan AFT Complex

Below, pictures of the main hallways of the Alabama Regional Training Institute’s Warrant Officer Candidate School adorned with accelerated and traditions class signs.

The Women’s Army Corps Memorial Chapel at Fort McClellan, dedicated November 4, 1978, honors all women who served in the WAAC (1942–1943) and WAC (1943–1978). The chapel features its original stained glass window, exposed timber-beam ceiling, wooden pews, and military flags. The Alabama National Guard maintains the building for ceremonies today.

(Left) WOCs in Class 26-0A2 conduct MDMP practical exercise rehearsal; (Right) Candidates learn the Doctrine of Army Leadership.

(Left) WO1 Patsy Smith teaches WOCs historical lenses of warfare; (Right) “Train until you can’t get it wrong,” COL Witherington, 200TH Regiment Commander, addresses AWOCS students in Class 26-0A3.

(Left) “The tenets of MDO are not only desirable attributes that lead to successful Army missions. They can be applied as a leadership model that warrant officers can use to meet the demands of operations, help develop effective teams, and successfully advise commanders at all levels.” CW4 Dickerson, Commander, inspires WOCs at a Senior Pinning Ceremony; (Right) Cadre from AZARNG, ALARNG, CTARNG, PRARNG, COARNG host a Mentorship Dinner for WOCs completing Phase 1 training.

Top left to right: CW4 Mickey Dickerson help train combat lifesaving and students and cadre enjoy time outside of the classroom flying in a CH-47 to Montgomery to watch an Air Force Warrant Officer graduation and navigating a leadership reaction course. Bottom left to right: CW5 Todd Outlaw, inspires candidates at the conclusion of their Victory Run and CW5 Tracy Jolly graduate the class.

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