There are five Warrant grades now. CW5 is usually called a Master Warrant or MW5. Those are usually the real experts and some of the older warrants. We have several who serve as technical advisors in the avation and maintenance fields. There are also a few MW5 in the mess halls.
The seeds of the CW5, or MW5, grade were planted at the height of the Vietnam War. When I entered Flight School in Nov 65 a good percentage of the WO Candidates had graduated from HS earlier that year. They enlisted for Flight School and after Basic Training were at Ft. Wolters beginning flight school. I was sort of in the middle with three years prior service. We had one 1SGT begin with us but had to drop out. There were many SSGs and SFCs.
In 66 the TIG required for promotion from WO1 to CW2 was being lowered from 18 months to 12. As Vietnam wound down, W3s were coming up for W4 with 10 or so years in the Army. Had I stayed a Warrant I could have come up for W4 with 13 or 14 years in the Army. A guy wanting to stay for 30 could have spent over half his career as a CW4 had they not created the W5 grade.
Arrowhead: thanks for the 411
RK: Check out Arrowhead's #173 for more current information.