Castile resident Richard Reed enters Army National Guard Warrant Officer Candidate School

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Staff Sgt. Richard Reed receives his Warrant Officer Candidate certificate from Brig. Gen. Raymond Shields during a Sept. 24 ceremony at New York National Guard Headquarters in Latham, N.Y.

LATHAM, NY (10/09/2014)(readMedia)-- New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Richard Reed, a Castile resident, and a veteran of the Iraq War, has been accepted into the Army's Warrant Officer Candidate program.

Reed, who enlisted in the Army in 2003, has served in the New York Army National Guard since 2011 as a member of the 42nd Infantry Divisions Operations Company in Buffalo as an intelligence specialist.

Army warrant officers are technical experts who posses special skills and expertise they range from intelligence specialists, to administrative experts, to artillery fire support technicians to helicopter pilots. They receive their name because they receive a "warrant" appointing them to their positions and not the commission that traditional officers receive.

Warrant Officers fall between the non-commissioned officer corps (sergeants) and the commissioned officers (lieutenants to generals) in the Army chain of command.

Reed joined the Army as an artilleryman and served at Fort Richardson, Alaska and Fort Riley, Kansas, before returning to New York.

Upon completion of Warrant Officer Candidate School he will receive the rank of Warrant Officer 1 and serve as an intelligence specialist in the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team headquarters in Syracuse.

He and his wife Jordan have two sons: Wesley and Charles.