Sea Cadet,Naval Academy Grad Credits NAS JAX Mentor for Success

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- It was a 13-year-old girl's sheer determination that convinced her immigrant parents in 2003, to let her join the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC), a decision that led to a mentor and later an officer's commission.

Ensign Katie Castro credits her involvement with the Sea Cadet program and one remarkable mentor, June Tillett, for helping her to realize her dream of pursuing a career in the U.S. Navy.

Castro was one of 1,077 Midshipmen to receive a diploma during the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2012 graduation and commissioning ceremony in Annapolis, Md., May 29.

Castro said she was obsessed with military aviation at a young age and dreamed of one day becoming a pilot. She learned about NSCC from an article in the local paper with a photo of Sea Cadet Airman Aaron Stemen sitting in a helicopter simulator aboard Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

She contacted Tillett, the Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) industrial manufacturing program manager, who also serves as the NSCC regional director for Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.

With 17 years of service, Tillett currently holds the rank of NSCC lieutenant commander. She oversees nine units and 315 personnel from Daytona Beach, Fla. to Savannah, Ga.

Tillett said Castro's Cuban-born father took a lot of convincing; he was worried his daughter would deploy to a war zone. In the end, he allowed his burgeoning ballerina to join the Sea Cadets.

"Katie had so much confidence," said Tillett. "When she first reported in 2003, for training in her civilian clothing, she saluted me. I had never seen that before. She said 'Ma'am, I'm going to the Naval Academy,' and I believed her. She was an exemplary Sea Cadet; she always wanted to do the right thing."

To complete her basic military requirements and coursework prior to graduating from high school, Castro attended two summer training sessions each year to earn the rank of chief petty officer in 2007, the highest attainable enlisted sea cadet rank. Only 10 percent complete the requirement, according to Tillett.

Castro said Tillett played a major role in her success.

"When I was a Sea Cadet, I remember thinking I want to be like her when I grow up," she said. "Cmdr. Tillett was one of my most important mentors with an incorruptible moral compass."

Castro entered the Naval Academy in 2008, to pursue an aeronautical engineering degree with a minor in French. Her dream to become a Naval aviator was shattered when she learned her nearsightedness was not surgically correctable.

"I was sitting in the lobby of Bethesda feeling sorry for myself when a bus pulled up filled with wounded warriors, some without arms and legs, arriving for physical therapy," she said. "They were strong and stoic. It was a sobering moment; it was a slap in the face."

She said up until that moment, life had been all about her. She started to ask herself how she could best serve the Navy. Back at the academy, she learned from the senior submarine nuclear accessions officer that her class was the first to be open to direct transition to the Navy's submarine service.

After two grueling technical interviews and a final interview with Adm. Kirkland H. Donald, director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion, Castro made the cut, along with six other pioneering women.

"Adm. Donald trashed my uniform and corrected my grammar," she said. "When he asked me why I wanted to serve in his submarine force, I told him I'm not here on a whim."

She reported to the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, S.C., July 5, for 12 months of training followed by 10 weeks of study at the Submarine Officer Basic Course in Connecticut.

The first female officers to complete the Navy's nuclear submarine program broke a longstanding gender barrier by joining crews on Ohio-class submarines in November 2011.

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For more news from Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, visit www.navy.mil/local/FRSE/.