Face of Defense: Air Force Officer Seeks New Challenges

MONTEREY, Calif., June 16, 2011 – After completing his reserve officers' training and earning a bachelor and master of science in aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Air Force 1st Lt. Ryan Castonia could well have gone on to a career as an engineer in the Air Force.

That would have been a success story by anyone's standards, but he was not content to stop there.

While still an Air Force ROTC cadet at MIT, Castonia sought out different opportunities for his future. Beyond the natural career path as an engineer, he was slotted to be a pilot, and finally settled on a combat rescue officer position. He also attended the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center here as part of the Air Force's new Language Enabled Airman Program, despite having no prior language proficiency.

"The LEAP program was created while I was still in ROTC, and the announcement came out through our cadre," Castonia explained. "I've always wanted to learn a foreign language; I just didn't feel like I was in a good time or place to ever do it [before]."

Air Force Culture and Language Center officials launched LEAP last year. The program is designed to identify airmen with foreign language abilities and foster those skills throughout their careers. Though Castonia was not already proficient in a foreign language, he applied for LEAP based on his high Defense Language Aptitude Battery score and 4.0 grade point average, both of which indicated his likelihood for success. Success, it seems, is no stranger to Castonia.

Castonia applied for a pilot trainee slot to become an Air Force pilot and was one of the select few to be accepted. But before he was to put on his gold bars, yet another opportunity caught his attention. After hearing about the CRO mission, Castonia fell in love with it.

He endured the mental, physical and psychological challenges of the dual-phase selection process and was one of only 11 chosen to become a part of this relatively new special operations career field initiated in 2000.

"I've always worked really hard to try to maintain a good balance between academics and athletics," he said. "My parents have always pushed that, and so I felt like the military was a good place where you can maintain that balance."

CROs parallel the Air Force's elite pararescue career field, open only to enlisted service members, and provide an officer cadre to lead pararescue teams and survival evasion resistance and escape specialists.

Airforce Pararescue Jumper

Looking for some input from the vets here. I'm fairly certain I'm joining the service and given my medical background I'd like to be a Medic. My friend was a marine and spoke very highly of his Corpsmen. So I went and spoke with a Navy recruiter who told me my chances of getting corpsman was so low that he wouldn't even send me to MEPS. His suggestion was, with my scores, to pursue their Nuke job line. No thanks. Well....the Nuke program is NOTORIOUSLY difficult to fill. The security clearance alone knocks out alot of candidates. Now....career wise....you come out of that Nuke program and you can spend that resume anywhere....so I wouldn't close your mind to it entirely. You'll be looking at 6 figures when you are done....but the service agreement is long...about 10 years I think. That is a HUGE commitment. If you're not bound by anything you tell the recruiter you'll wait as long as necassary to garentee a signed deal to try out for the PJs. Get everything in writing and even then, you probably won't be able to do s*it about it if they dupe you. Given your background as an EMT I'd say the PJs are a good fit. Otherwise a SERE Instructor which is great for your survivability on Z-Day. SERE was another AFSC recruiting during bootcamp. Your in the chow line and they say, "anyone interested in SERE come this way, unless prohibited by your AFSC!" sorry, but I'll have to disagree with you 100%. Our freedoms are under absolutely 0 direct threat from men in caves. our freedoms are more at stake by the tyrants in Washington D.C. than someone 4,000+ miles away. Who passed the patriot act? not the terrorists. Who bails out the banks and big corporations? not the terrorists. who writes anti-gun laws? not the terrorists. who is in over 130 countries? not the terrorist. who has almost 1,000 military bases around the globe? not the terrorist. sorry, but I'll have to disagree with you 100%. Our freedoms are under absolutely 0 direct threat from men in caves. our freedoms are more at stake by the tyrants in Washington D.C. than someone 4,000+ miles away. Who passed the patriot act? not the terrorists. Who bails out the banks and big corporations? not the terrorists. who writes anti-gun laws? not the terrorists. who is in over 130 countries? not the terrorist. who has almost 1,000 military bases around the globe? not the terrorist. I have to say I agree with this in parts. but not in others.

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