army travel warrant

Rail Travel mid 20th Century

Pre-digital travel warrants and passes for service personnel, UK

Travel warrants and passes for absence for men and women in the forces didn't significantly change until the digital era. In fact, it was more or less the same for most of the 20th century, including in the First and Second World Wars . This page describes the system in detail with illustrations and explains why it was necessary. The page concludes with historical notes.

What travel warrants were

A travel warrant, also known as a rail warrant or travel voucher, was a voucher that was issued to an individual or group of service personnel for travel on the railways.

Why travel warrants were issued

Travel warrants could be issued for several reasons, e.g. for travel to a training course or for leave. It was rare, in my experience, for a senior officer to allow travel warrants for other circumstances unless there was a family death.

Travel warrants for leave were always to a pre-designated location which was usually the area of the family home. The distance was immaterial.

How travel warrants were issued

Travel warrants were administered from what was known as a Registry. There was one in every unit of the RAF - a unit being one's place of work. When I first joined the RAF my first unit was the Royal Air Force College Cranwell; my last was a fighter squadron at Conningsby. A registry was staffed by a sergeant, a corporal and one or more Senior Aircrafts Men.

Usually the corporal was in charge of issuing a warrant. He did so in response to receiving an order, also known as a signal, usually from a type of teleprinter. He gave the travel warrant to the person about to travel and submitted carbon copies at intervals to Station Head Quarters for accounting purposes. New recruits had their travel warrants posted to them.

From travel warrant to train ticket

It was a good idea to get to the railway station early with one's travel warrant as the ticket office had to translate it into tickets. Many years ago, as a sergeant in the cadets, I had to present a warrant for myself and about 20 other cadets to travel from Birmingham to a remote station in Oxford. The ticket clerk was unfamiliar with the warrant system and we nearly missed the train!

A travel warrant ticket for a member of Her Majesty's Forces travelling on leave. It is date-stamped on the back as 4th January 1954 and is courtesy of Tony Harris.

Note from the webmaster

Because the ticket in the photo is marked THIRD CLASS it shows that ordinary forces personnel were not expected to travel in much comfort. As explained on the page about classes of train travel, third class travel was very basic and was already being phased out while I was growing up in the 1940s. As far as I know, my working class family never even had the option of travelling third class after WW2. Yet this ticket is dated as late as 1954. It is for Southern Railways, so possibly different lines had different policies.

I remember passenger train tickets being pale green. So has this one faded over time or were forces' tickets a different colour, as were platform tickets ? If you can clarify or add anything, please contact me.

Warrants and reimbursement for non-rail travel

In my experience there never were bus warrants. If you had to take a bus after the train, you kept the ticket and submitted it with a travel claim (Form 1771). You could also detail timings so you could be reimbursed for missed meals and what were called "incidentals". Eventually you might see the money again!

I do recall a travel order for a ferry. On one occasion I was issued one for a ferry that had ceased to run about 10 years earlier! The system was also notorious for trying to issue rail warrants long after that particular line was closed!

Passes for absence issued with travel warrants

For much of the 20th century, service personnel were expected to travel in uniform. This meant that they could be instantly recognised, so might be accused of being Absent Without Leave (AWOL) - something not uncommon in wartime when so many men had been forced to join up. To meet such an eventuality, the services issued passes along with their travel warrants. These were for inspection by any authority to show that the individual concerned was absent from his or her place of work with the agreement of the commanding officer. (Nowadays service personnel are not required to travel in uniform as it singles them out for terrorist attacks.)

1940s army pass for being absent from quarters for the purpose of travelling to Rome. Provided by Alan Bennett from his father's papers.

1944 army pass for being absent from quarters/duty for the purpose of travelling to Cairo. Provided by Alan Bennett from his father's papers.

A pass can be for annual leave, for 24 or 48 hours for a day or a weekend off, or just for part of a day away from the base. Nowadays a pass is usually referred to as a leave pass and is permission to be away from ones place of duty.

Passes were even required for leaving the camp/barracks just for an evening. In the armed forces, every second of every day belonged - and still belongs - to someone else. So if you were off-base for an evening, you had better have had permission!

Both warrants and passes are a feature of military life, regardless of whether a war is on.

H istorical note on military travel warrants and passes

During my time in the RAF I had access to archival material from the 1950s which confirmed that the travel warrant system was more or less as described above. Several of the post- World War Two national servicemen mention travel warrants on this website. My father's leave passes mention travel by warrant and are dated earlier still, namely 1941. I also understand that T E Lawrence (of Lawrence of Arabia fame) mentions being given a travel warrant when he was posted to RAF Cranwell which must have been in the mid-1920s. So the warrant system must have been around from at the least the Great War if not before.

One of my older friends was a pay clerk in the RAF in the early 1950s and he confirmed that its administrative systems were pretty much the same down the ages, the only real change came with the digital era. In particular pay then started being paid into bank accounts rather than in a pay parade .

If you can add anything to this page or provide a photo, I would be pleased if you would contact me.

sources: early 20th century material       sources: ww2 home front and other material      contact the webmaster/author/researcher/editor      privacy policy

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Air Force relaunches warrant officer corps to beef up cyber, IT capabilities

Airman Tyler Shipley, a cyber systems operations specialist with the 121st Air Refueling Wing, works on a computer at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio, on April 7, 2024. (Ivy Thomas/U.S. Air National Guard)

The Air Force is reinstating its long-dormant warrant officer corps and looking for airmen to specialize in information technology and cyberspace as the U.S. confronts China’s rising military might.

The service announced Thursday that it is accepting applications through May 31 for airmen interested in becoming warrant officers in the IT and cyber career fields.

Up to 60 candidates will be selected this summer, the Air Force said in a news release Thursday.

“These warrant officers will be responsible for orchestrating, managing, and integrating cyberspace technical capabilities, delivering critical technical recommendations across various military and inter-agency platforms,” the release states.

They will integrate cyberspace capabilities into the Air Force’s combat functions, according to the release.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall announced plans to reintroduce warrant officers to the service in February during the Air and Space Forces Association’s 2024 Warfare Symposium in Colorado.

The symposium’s theme, “Preparing for Great Power Conflict,” reflected the Pentagon’s shift in strategy toward a possible military confrontation with China as the size and ambitions of its military continue to grow.

“We need operational units with all the capabilities they need to deter and compete with our pacing challenges and ready to enter a conflict on short or no notice,” Kendall said at the symposium.

“In those units we need the right mix of skills necessary for high end combat and to ensure technological superiority, particularly in information technology and cyber,” he said.

The Air Force dissolved its warrant officer corps in 1958 after it created the ranks of senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant, the news release states. They took on the specific technical duties of warrant officers but were never fully relieved of other duty requirements.

The reintroduction of warrant officers represents “a strategic shift towards bolstering technical proficiency and operational effectiveness,” according to the release.

Applications are open to active duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve service members holding the rank of at least staff sergeant and having one year of active federal service.

Applicants must meet specific experience and proficiency requirements for each specialty.

Two specialty codes were created for the IT and cyber roles.

The first, 17W – Warfighter Communications & IT Systems Operations, designates expertise in “planning, deployment, employment, and securing of enterprise and warfighter communication systems,” the news release states.

The second is 17Y – Cyber Effects & Warfare Operations and denotes airmen who are subject matter experts on “offensive and defensive cyber operations assets and personnel,” the news release states.

A selection board will identify top candidates in late June, and selected airmen will be notified in late July. Training is slated to begin late this year or early 2025 at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

“These are highly in-demand, and also extremely perishable, skills in today’s rapidly evolving landscape,” David Flosi, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force, said in the news release.

“As we navigate the complexities of Great Power Competition, our ability to adapt and innovate hinges on the expertise of our Airmen,” he said.

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1. What type of tickets can I purchase using a rail warrant?

Rail warrants can be exchanged for the majority of rail tickets available across the National Rail network.

When a warrant is presented at a station, the ticket clerk will look at the details completed   and then issue the cheapest ticket available for the journey requested. Normal ticket prices are applicable and there are no special discounts available when purchasing tickets using warrants.

Car park tickets may be purchased using a rail warrant where operated by the train company, however please confirm with them before making your journey.  

On-board meals (if available) may also be purchased   using warrants. Again, please check   with the train company before making your journey for their confirmation.

Through rail/ship journeys, where these fares exist, can also be purchased using a warrant but not port to port only journeys.

For more information on ticket types please visit the tickets information page on the National Rail Enquiries website.

Yes you can reserve seats using a warrant if seats are reservable for the journey being made. Some tickets include a seat reservation and so in this case you can simply issue the warrant for the ticket only.

If the ticket does not include the seat reservation then you will need to issue a separate warrant completing the journey details and then in the 'Other Services' section, mark the warrant ‘seat reservation only’.

You will then need to exchange your warrant at the station. Reservations can normally be made from about 2 months in advance of the day of travel, up to about 2 hours before the train departs from its start point, or, for early morning trains, up to 1600 the previous evening.

For more information on reservations please visit the reservations page on the National Rail Enquiries website.

Israel fears ICC will issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other top officials

TEL AVIV — Israel is greatly concerned that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior military officials as early as this week, an Israeli official told NBC News. 

Israel is working through diplomatic channels to try to stop the warrants being issued, the official said Monday. 

When asked about media reports of the arrest warrants, the ICC told NBC News that it “has an ongoing independent investigation in relation to the Situation in the State of Palestine" and that "we have no further comment to make at this stage."

The court launched an investigation three years ago into possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Palestinian militants going back to the Israel-Hamas war in 2014. It has given no public indication that arrest warrants are imminent, and it was not clear whether Israel was also expecting arrest warrants for any Hamas leaders.

The news comes as pressure mounts on Israel to halt its military offensive in Gaza, which officials in the Palestinian enclave say has killed more than 34,000 people since it was launched in the wake of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attacks.

Netanyahu spoke with President Joe Biden on Sunday night, and Israel is awaiting a response from Hamas on a new cease-fire proposal .

Karim Khan, who serves as chief prosecutor of the ICC, visited the region in December and said that his investigation was “moving forward at pace, with rigor, with determination and with an insistence that we act not on emotion but on solid evidence.”

Any warrants would not mean that Netanyahu will end up in jail.

Neither Israel nor the United States recognize the court's jurisdiction, though any warrants would put Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries, including much of Europe.

“As we have publicly said many times, the ICC has no jurisdiction in this situation and we do not support its investigation,” a spokesperson for the National Security Council said.

They would also serve as a high-profile statement on Israel's actions in Gaza, and an embarrassing development that would put Netanyahu alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin as a major leader to face such action from the ICC.

Netanyahu said Friday that Israel “will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defense.”

“The threat to seize the soldiers and officials of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is outrageous. We will not bow to it,” he said in a post on X.

In a sign of the country's concern, its Foreign Ministry said late Sunday that it had informed Israeli missions of “rumors” that warrants might be issued against senior Israeli officials.

Such a move, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, would “provide a morale boost” to Hamas and other militant groups.

The ICC — based in The Hague, the Netherlands — can charge individuals with war crimes and other related charges. It is separate from the International Court of Justice, which considers cases between states and is currently investigating whether Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza.

Israel and the U.S. have dismissed the accusation.

Raf Sanchez is a foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Israel's Netanyahu says ICC arrest warrants would be scandal on historic scale

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Reporting by James Mackenzie and Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Alex Richardson

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