Chief Warrant Officer 5
James J. Wynne

James J. Wynne, born February 13, 1957, in Salem, Massachusetts, entered the Army in 1975. A tracked vehicle mechanic, he served in the 79th Combat Engineer Battalion in Germany and the 707th Maintenance Battalion at Fort Ord, California, attaining the rank of staff sergeant before being appointed a warrant officer in 1982. His first warrant officer assignment, from 1984 to 1987, was as Maintenance Technician for the 4/40th Armor Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado. To his credit, his maintenance operation was chosen to represent the division on a Department of the Army Inspector General's visit, receiving superior ratings in all areas.

Wynne next served as Maintenance Technician for the 557th Maintenance Company in Germany, increasing direct-support job completions to 150 a month, one of the highest rates in the 2d Corps Support Command. In 1989, he became the Maintenance Technician for the 557th's parent unit, the 87th Maintenance Battalion, deploying on Operation Desert Storm to provide support to the 1st Infantry Division and VII Corps nondivisional units. From 1991 to 1992, he served as Maintenance Technician for the 79th Forward Support Battalion, supporting the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord. He then stepped up to be the division's Senior Automotive Warrant Officer, orchestrating logistics support for the division's move to Fort Lewis, Washington.

From 1993 to 1995, Wynne served as Maintenance Technician for the 178th Maintenance Company, supporting the 4/7th Air Defense Artillery Battalion (Patriot) at Fort Lewis. His expertise was instrumental in the battalion's successful split-based operations in Southwest Asia for five months, maintaining a 95 percent operational readiness rate. After completing the Warrant Officer Staff Course, Wynne served as Automotive Technical Advisor, US Army Security Assistance Training Teams, to Kuwaiti Land Forces until 1998 providing advice on all aspects of automotive and tracked vehicle maintenance. He also served as the contracting officer's technical representative for a $1.5 million contract for M109A2 howitzers for Kuwait.

Wynne returned to the United States to serve as the 3d BCT's Senior Automotive Warrant. He oversaw a modification work order program for the brigade's M1A1 tanks, instituted a preventive maintenance training program, and sustained the brigade's operational readiness rate at over 90 percent during training deployments. Given his proven performance, Wynne was selected to be the Senior Maintenance Warrant Officer for 1st Corps at Fort Lewis in 2000. He played a key role in the conversion of the 3d BCT into the Interim Brigade Combat Team as part of Army Transformation.

In 2001, Wynne was then selected to be the Army Cultural Study Group Leader for the Army Training and Leadership Panel (ATLDP) Warrant Officer Study at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Supervising data collection from numerous installations, he analyzed survey results from more than 30,000 Soldiers and led a team of 14 in preparing conclusions and recommendations on the structure and training of the Warrant Officer Corps. Wynne's final assignment, from 2002 to 2005, was as the Regimental Chief Warrant Officer for the Ordnance Corps. He instituted a formal mentoring program for young warrant officers and a program whereby warrants mentored and nominated the best noncommissioned officers to become warrant officers. Chief Warrant Officer Five Wynne retired in 2005 after 30 years of dedicated service.