What's that translate to in Traveller Navy terms? <=)
Actually, what I'm reading via internet poking is that "the wardroom is the mess-cabin of naval commissioned officers' above the rank of sub-lieutenant"
[source]. Sub-lieutenant in MgT is Navy Officer 2, so the wardroom is for Officer rank 3 and higher? (I'd extend that to other career branches, of course.)
The way the USN promotes to warrant, essentially, E10-E13.
In all seriousness, US Warrants and Chief Warrants are Commissioned officers below Ensign/Sub-lieutenant, usually, but not always, promoted from the senior enlisted (some have been as low as E5, and a few, mostly pilots, were direct commissions). The titles have varied since the end of WW I, but the functional purposes are either "promoting an NCO above the rest of the SNCO's but still under the Ensigns" or "Only officers are allowed to do X, so these guys will be Warrants so they can do X even tho' they don't qualify for commissioning as O1's". The former was introduced by the USMC and USN just after WW I; the latter was USN, USMC, and USAAC at the start of WWII, after congress said "Enlisted Men don't fly in combat"...
The rank titles of the first warrants are interesting: Gunner or Quartermaster Clerk (USMC); Bosun, Gunner, Carpenter, Electrician, Radio-Electrician, Machinist, Pay Clerk, or Pharmacist (USN); Flight Officer, Field Clerk (USAAC); Field Clerk (Army); Master, Mate, Chief Engineer, Assistant Engineer (USACOS/USAMPS).... Half of the warrant corps was direct commission to WO for holding jobs requiring officer authority but not having military training, while the other half were technically trained NCO's promoted to serve as specialist-officers. Note that the Navy and USMC used almost exclusively former enlisted, while the Army trained new recruits directly to warrants... And in practice, that distinction still holds. (On paper, all Army warrants are supposedly former enlisted - some do basic, then a combined WOCS and Flight School...)
