4月 YE 43 Kyoto, Yamatai--This week, Taisho Ketsurui-Shinjuku Hanako announced in per personnel briefing that the Star Army of Yamatai would be phasing out its warrant officer ranks (Santo Juni, Nito Juni, and Itto Juni). "As the Star Army continues to mature, we found that these ranks are redundant at best and confusing at worst. Additionally, in the past there have been irregularities where soldiers were promoted to warrant officer ranks from the maximum enlisted ranks and obsolete traditions such as giving warrant officer ranks to Ketsurui Samurai, who are no longer part of the Star Army of Yamatai, or to members of SAINT. As occupational specialties have been refined and maximum and minimum ranks were clarified, we found most occupations simply have no reason to have a warrant officer rank included. An example is cooks, an enlisted-only occupation, where there are nevertheless some Juni cooks, all promoted erroneously. To fix this, we plan to create a clean slate by phasing out the warrant officer ranks entirely to create a blank slate, and then, only once this project is completed by Star Army Personnel Command, we can look at adding the 'Juni' rank back only if we find cases where there is a legitimate need for it."
In the current setup, Warrant Officers are technical expert professionals, who are not quite regular officers - they're not really there to be leadership, they're there because they're good at something and the Star Army needed them. They're way more rare than regular officers or enlisted. In the Star Army warrant officers are not part of the enlisted rank chain and you can't get promoted from enlisted into a warrant officer.
The "Juni" ranks are as old as the Star Army itself, and seeing these warrant officers with blue sleeve stripes and rank pins featuring blue enamel in their triangular fleet logos is currently not that uncommon; however, warrant officers make up only a small portion--less than 10%--of the Star Army's overall population. Existing warrant officers will be reclassified as standard commissioned officers, although this probably means going to officer school and possibly an occupation change may be required. Even though the Star Army is currently in a post-war reduction phase where it is shedding excess soldiers at a rapid pace, it simultaneously has a shortage of experienced commissioned officers, particularly in Taii-Taisa ranks, which has been exacerbated by the mass retirements of original-generation Star Army officers who joined the Star Army in YE 21 and YE 22 and have now hit their 21 years of service. It is likely that the Star Army Personnel Command hopes to bolster these shortages by elevating some of the displaced warrant officers.
In the current setup, Warrant Officers are technical expert professionals, who are not quite regular officers - they're not really there to be leadership, they're there because they're good at something and the Star Army needed them. They're way more rare than regular officers or enlisted. In the Star Army warrant officers are not part of the enlisted rank chain and you can't get promoted from enlisted into a warrant officer.
The "Juni" ranks are as old as the Star Army itself, and seeing these warrant officers with blue sleeve stripes and rank pins featuring blue enamel in their triangular fleet logos is currently not that uncommon; however, warrant officers make up only a small portion--less than 10%--of the Star Army's overall population. Existing warrant officers will be reclassified as standard commissioned officers, although this probably means going to officer school and possibly an occupation change may be required. Even though the Star Army is currently in a post-war reduction phase where it is shedding excess soldiers at a rapid pace, it simultaneously has a shortage of experienced commissioned officers, particularly in Taii-Taisa ranks, which has been exacerbated by the mass retirements of original-generation Star Army officers who joined the Star Army in YE 21 and YE 22 and have now hit their 21 years of service. It is likely that the Star Army Personnel Command hopes to bolster these shortages by elevating some of the displaced warrant officers.
