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Americans. I grew up believing in the American dream and fell in love with what I saw as the protector of that dream: the American Soldier.” He left active duty to attend college through a Green to Gold Scholarship and was commissioned in 1998 as an armor officer.
During a deployment to Iraq in 2007, Castro explained, “a lieu- tenant colonel came to field a new system for us. He and his staff came from out of nowhere, it seemed, and provided us this gift of a new capability, and they took notes as we told them what worked and what didn’t—it was fantastic. At that time, I was starting to plan for the next phase of my career, and I knew that I liked being a Soldier and taking care of Soldiers. Te next major step for me in combat arms was battalion commander, and I knew what that position was like. But acquisition seemed limitless. Tere are so many different programs to manage.”
His first acquisition assignment was assistant product manager within the PEO for Soldier, where he served from late 2010 through November 2013. “It was a fantastic first assignment. It was so easy to be passionate about what we were doing because it was so easy to draw a direct line from what we were doing in the program office to how it affected Soldiers.” Te assignment also provided him with a variety of experiences: managing multiple programs, including cold weather gear, fire-resistant clothing and tactical communications; a monthlong fill-in stint as a DA systems coordinator (DASC); and a year as the executive officer to the PEO.
Castro then served in the Pentagon as a legislative liaison in the Army’s Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison (OCLL), which is responsible for coordinating the Army’s congressional agenda.
“Te interaction between Congress and the Pentagon is very sim- ilar to the interactions within the defense acquisition enterprise,” he explained. “Te success of the mission hinges on prioritiz- ing your most important efforts and then aligning the resources and stakeholders to execute them. While some of the players are
different—and at times, the playing field may have a more nar- rowly tailored strategic focus—the playbook is essentially the same. It’s always about people: aligning their interests and moti- vations to achieve a desired outcome.”
During his OCLL assignment, he worked to help advance the Army’s legislative priorities, meeting with members of Con- gress and their staffs to discuss funding priorities and issues in congressional districts that might affect Army budgets. “At the OCLL, we did a lot of groundwork—meeting with staffers, gaining an understanding of congressional concerns and priori- ties and communicating them to senior leaders—so that those senior leaders could go into meetings with congressional leader- ship informed on what the key issues are and how they dovetail with what the Army is trying to accomplish. It’s all about build- ing relationships. If you’re at your desk, you’re doing it wrong.”
Having served for two legislative cycles, in 2014 and 2015, Castro noted that the assignment yielded numerous dividends.
“First, it allowed me to work within and understand the Army Staff and Secretariat, including the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology [ASA(ALT)]. Understanding the intricacies of how the Army and Pentagon work is essential for being successful in a PM [program manager] position. It enables you to understand and anticipate potential impacts to your program before they occur and to determine the best course of action in response.”
Te OCLL assignment also included strategic planning and messaging, with attendance at strategy meetings where senior leaders discussed Army modernization issues, all of which helped Castro put into context the importance of the work being done at the program level. “Pentagon jobs provide such a layered understanding of how the acquisition enterprise works, and that understanding is invaluable later on,” he noted.
“It’s too easy to get dismayed by the bureaucracy. Don’t let it discourage you. Our job is to get capability to the warfighter, despite the challenges.”
Te position also gives Soldiers the chance to work in a strate- gic position at the Army enterprise level, a must for those who want to build potential for future assignments with increased responsibility, Castro said. “To learn how the Pentagon works, how the Army Staff functions on the Hill and how money works was something I got a glimpse of when I worked as a DASC, but that was just for a month. To have two years to build relation- ships, think strategically and work with PMs, the Army staffs, congressional committees and staffers and ASA(ALT) staff was a tremendous opportunity.”
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