Message from the vice president of the CWOA

In the article, CWOA Vice President Jeff Timberlake discusses the importance of unity among warrant officers and the role of the Chief Warrant Officers Association in advocating for their interests. He highlights the need for warrant officers to join the CWOA to strengthen their collective voice, especially in the face of potential threats to their positions within the Coast Guard.

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​Hey Everyone,
From your CWOA Vice President Jeff Timberlake, I hope your day is going great and you are still loving your job. Just wanted to give a shout out on a few things I’ve been thinking about and seeing since I retired from the Coast Guard and took on this new role as CWOA Vice President. What a blast I am having going around talking with new warrants and sharing stories. This is right down my alley, lol. I have also been learning more about our Association and my new role; Wow, I have a long way to go and a lot more learning to do, but I will for sure bring you along for the ride. I just didn’t know all that the association has done for us when I was on active duty and how much they have played a role in where we are today. I can see how even more now important the CWOA is for our active duty. With the Gold Badge network talking about our warrant billets and how senior enlisted should be filling them to the recent cuts in warrant promotions now and into the future; all in the parting words: “This is good for our service retention and recruitment.”  I do not know about you, but removing our warrant jobs and cutting back on warrant promotions doesn’t sound like building retention and recruitment. It sounds like building senior enlisted workforce and cutting our warrants jobs out of the Coast Guard. Someone wants your warrant jobs and those people are advocating in the background to remove warrants from our workforce. Who could they be I wonder? Who want your warrant jobs; I’m not sure who, but I am sure someone wants to take your billets. So, that leads me to, what can you do?
               First, we need to unite as one voice.  You by yourself can voice your concerns up the Chain of Command (COC) and go to congress about your needs, but I do not think that will get you too far. I do know, this is what the CWOA has been doing for many years, standing up for warrant officers and service members. Being that voice for the warrants is what the CWOA is in business for. So, what made the CWOA such a strong voice in the past. It is because 9 out of 10 warrants were members of the Association. Now, 9 out of 10 is a strong voice up the COC and to congress. If you want to stand as one voice and stand with an organizations that fights for you and has a record of accomplishments of standing for you, please join the CWOA. Once you join voice your concerns to the association and let the association represent you. We have __% of active duty as members. If you want a strong voice get to 9 out of 10 and you would be amazed at what you can do as one voice. Protect your future and leave a legacy for incumbent warrants.
              The second thing I want to do is give a big shout out to CWO J-me Baldueza (CWOPD School Chief), CWO Tony Morabito (CWOPD Asst. School Chief) and the CWOPD class 08-23. They welcomed me as I visited and I was able to share about the CWOA and “The Why” it is so important to be a part of the CWOA. I also attended the famous “Fork and Knife” class and had lunch with class 08-23, that was a blast. My favorite part of the visit was the warm welcome from the class and the showing of great support toward the CWOA. 12 warrant officers joined the CWOA from class 08-23 and four others in the class where already members making the entire membership for class 08-23 18 out 20 members. Now that is a strong 90% voice. Way to go CWOPD Class 08-23 and welcome to the CWOA: OSS2 Tricia Eldredge, MAT2 John Eppler, DIV2 Sean Eversole, ENG2 Philip Gillespie, MSSD2 Shay Hutchings, MSSD2 Ryan Johnson, ENG2 Don Ladd, MSSD2 Kathie Linnick, F&S2 Chris Marquez, ENG2 Matthew Pasquier,  ISM2 David Poling, and MAT2 Joel Seay. Way to go!!!
Jeff Timberlake your CWOA VP is signing out and wants to wish all of you a great, happy and healthy week/month and year. Until next time, take your membership to the “HNL.”
Signed,
MAT4 Jeff Timberlake,
USCG Retired J


PS: Shoot me your concerns and comments at [email protected] or give me a text or call at 727-858-8655.