Deep in the Southern state of Alabama, lies one of the country’s largest and most revered military installations that it has ever seen-- Fort Rucker.  Fort Rucker, Alabama is the birthplace of many careers and many stories and the home base to authorities on many different military specialists from aviators to the ordnance.  One particular reason why Fort Rucker is so notable is the Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS).

WARRANT OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL

The Warrant Officer Candidate School is pretty much the sole creator of Warrant Officers in the United States Army.  Warrant Officers in the Army are members who are outstandingly specialized and trained in their particular field. These fields range from all but two of the branches of the US Army.  While only consisting of 3 percent of the United States Army’s forces, the Warrant Officer position is highly respected and revered as trainers, organizers, and advisers on missions as well as advancing the fields in which they specialize.  Very few Army members ever become Warrant Officers but the ones who make it earn the honor and respect that they deserve.

WOCS CLASSES AND DURATION

Every year, the Warrant Officer Candidate School has over 20 classes that come for 7 weeks of grueling and rigorous drills, lessons, and exercises.  It’s not all bad though, as the Warrant Officer Candidate school offers a rich culture and memorable networking experiences. It’s a class tradition for WOCS classes to have their own unique mascot as well as color.  No class is the same at WOCS, so one class will have one color and mascot whilst another class will have another color and mascot and towards the end of the seven weeks, they all receive challenge coins.

WOCS AND THEIR CHALLENGE COIN HISTORY

STUDENTS REPRESENTATION INSIGNIAS

Warrant Officer Candidate School coins always feature the branch insignia’s of its class members:  Every WOCS class coin has the insignia of the members of the class, if a class has members in Ordnance, are Quartermasters or Military Police, it’ll be featured on the coin 

MASCOTS OR THEMES

Warrant Officer Candidate School challenge coins always feature the mascots of their respective class:  Whether it be the Honey Badgers or the Ronins or the Bulls, the WOCS coins always make a coin in the shape directly of or with respect to their mascot.

ALWAYS FEATURING THE COLOR OF THEIR CLASS

Whether they’re the Red Thunder Gods or the Purple Direwolves, the class color is always easily findable on their WOCS class coin.

WOCS CHALLENGE COIN JOURNEY

Once all of the arrangements are made for the class to have a clear communication network-- where they can talk with their class coin officer about coin ideas and vote on which designs are the most well-received amongst them, they decide on which design to go with.  Usually, classes have one or two different design concepts made before choosing which design they want to produce. For example, WOCS Class 19-01 started with a Blood Wolf concept for their coin design. 19-01 was a somewhat unorthodox case due to their choice of only one singular starting concept of a mascot, but the biggest benefit of starting with only one concept greatly increases the speed of the project!

CHOOSING OPTION AND END RESULT

While they started out with a wide range of design concepts, they finally voted on having a Wolves, soon renamed “Lycans” themed challenge coin and mascot.  The coin’s final design, the one placed in production was such a hit that they had over 500 coins made and distributed with hundreds of people wowed by their design.

CHALLENGE COIN TURNS INTO LEGACY

The design made for their coin became more than just a challenge coin.  Their design, and every Warrant Officer Candidate School coin and design, is a tangible testament and commemoration to the prestige, class, and exclusivity of the Warrant Officer Candidate School.  It’s not only a superb design but also a piece of time that can be passed down the line to descendants that one may never meet.

If you have an idea that you think can rival the WOCS class coins, whether it be a challenge coin, belt buckle, or somewhere in between, shoot us a message and we’ll be more than happy to make your project come to life!