Chief Warrant Officer 5 (CW5) Sam Ngaropo is the Command Chief Warrant Officer of United States Army North (Fifth Army) and the Senior Warrant Officer Advisor of Joint Base San Antonio. U.S. Army North is the Theater Army and Army Service Component Command to U.S. Northern Command, the geographic combatant command for North America. U.S. Army North’s mission is Homeland Defense, Defense Support of Civil Authorities and Theater Security Cooperation. U.S. Army North is also a standing Joint Force Land Component Command.
Chief Warrant Officer Five (CW5) Ngaropo is responsible for the leadership, officership, mentorship and direction of the Joint Warrant Officer (WO) cohort. He is charged with creating a culture of professionalism and esprit de corps for the multi-component (Active, Guard and Reserve) team; Synchronizes Warrant Officer related initiatives and advises the Commander on professional development training, empowerment, career enhancement.
CW5 Sam Ngaropo is a native Maori, born and raised in New Zealand.
He entered military service in 1990 as part of the World-Famous Hormel HAWGS of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron-114. He graduated the Warrant Officer Basic course in 1999 and was selected for duties with the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade Giebelstadt Germany, V CORPS. Qualified Joint Interface Control Officer (JICO) in Israel, he helped spearhead some of PATRIOT’s first emplacement exercises and missions in the middle east, Poland and the Netherlands. Selected to train Warrant Officer Candidates at Ft Rucker Alabama, he served as Warrant Officer Career Center Deputy Operations Officer, Primary Training, Advising and Counseling (TAC) Officer and General Studies Instructor-responsible for developing, advising and coaching the Army’s best Candidates from 16 branches and 72 MOS’s. In 2006 he was selected to help stand up the new 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, Ft Shafter Hawaii. He established the first Army and Air Force Joint Interface Control Cell (JICC) in the 613th Air Operations Center Pacific Air Forces and served as the first 13th Air Force Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) JICO, advising the Joint Force Air Component Commander (JFACC) on integration and interoperability of all land-based BMD systems in the Pacific. He was also selected to serve as the CENTCOM Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) JICO – Aludied AB, Qatar. In 2009 he deployed as part of the Multi-National CORPS Iraq JICO-OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM with follow on assignment as JICO I-CORPS and 1st Air Support Operations Group, Ft Lewis WA. In 2013 he became the Eighth Army JICO Korea and established the first Army Air Force Coalition-JICC, Osan Air Base Korea. In 2013 he served as Chief, US Army Pacific’s G3 Operations, Air Missile Defense team. From August 2016 through October 2020, he served as the INDOPACOM Ballistic Missile Defense Asset Manager responsible for all theater (Regional and Homeland) BMD system maintenance planning and coordination. In November 2020, CW5 Ngaropo was selected to be the first Command Chief Warrant Officer (CCWO) for the U.S.
Army North (Fifth Army). He has participated in numerous campaigns to include Operation Restore Hope Somalia, Presidents War on Drugs Howard AFB Panama, Bosnia, Kuwait, Israel, Operation Iraqi Freedom and numerous operations in Europe and the Asia Pacific.
He is the proud father of 2 daughters in the US Air Force and his son in the US Army. He has 6 grandchildren.