Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms welcomes new chief nursing officer back to where her nursing career began

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms welcomed Cmdr. Cheryl Q. Castro as its new chief nursing officer (CNO) in August 2026, bringing her Navy career full circle to the command where she began her journey as a newly commissioned nurse.

For Castro, a San Diego native, returning to Twentynine Palms is both a professional milestone and a homecoming.

“I first came here as an ensign, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” Castro said. “I loved it then, and I am loving it again already.”

Castro said the sense of community she remembered from her first tour remains one of the command’s defining qualities.

“I have never felt more welcomed and supported at any other command than at Twentynine Palms,” Castro said. “The minute you walk in the door, you feel the warmth and the sincerity that people are genuinely happy you are a part of the team, ready to support, ready to take care of the warfighter and ready to get the job done.”

Castro arrived at Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms from Naval Medical Center San Diego, where she served as the mother infant nursing department head. During her three-year assignment there, she also deployed twice in support of Pacific Partnership, the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific region.

Rather than pointing to a single assignment as preparation for becoming a CNO, Castro credits the cumulative experiences of her Navy career and the people she has served alongside.

“I can’t say any one tour has prepared me,” Castro said. “I think all my tours have shaped me. I am a lifelong learner, so I am preparing myself every day for my role as CNO.”

She particularly credits former leaders and colleagues who demonstrated the value of humility, compassion and giving others room to learn and grow.

“I have had amazing leaders who have shown me grace and humility,” Castro said. “They have reminded me every day to show grace to myself and to others.”

Castro’s connection to the Navy began long before she put on a uniform. The daughter of a Sailor, she grew up in a Navy family in San Diego. Her father joined the U.S. Navy from the Philippines as a machinery repairman and ultimately retired as a first class petty officer after 20 years of service.

“Some of my childhood memories are of helping iron my dad’s Navy dungarees,” Castro said. “We were a Navy family through and through. He inspired me to join as well.”

Her mother worked as a certified nursing assistant and encouraged Castro to pursue nursing.

Castro initially attended college before deciding at 24 to follow in her father’s footsteps and begin her own Navy career. She enlisted in October 1998, beginning a path that would eventually lead her to nursing and back to Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms as the CNO.

In her new position, Castro is focused on creating an environment where nurses, hospital corpsmen and other healthcare professionals understand how their individual development contributes to both patient care and military readiness.

“At the heart of everything we do is our commitment to our patients,” Castro said. “The care we provide is about trust, compassion and making a real difference in warfighters’ lives.”

She believes taking care of the healthcare team itself is essential to sustaining that commitment.

“The better we take care of ourselves and each other, the better we can take care of them,” Castro said. “My goal as CNO is to create an environment where everyone feels encouraged to grow professionally and personally, because everyone brings something valuable to the team.”

That investment in professional development has implications beyond the walls of the hospital.

Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms supports the world’s largest live-fire Marine Corps training installation, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, making the development of clinically proficient hospital corpsmen particularly important to the military treatment facility’s readiness mission. For many junior corpsmen, Castro said, an assignment to Twentynine Palms may be one of their first opportunities to build the clinical foundation they will later rely upon in operational environments.

“It’s important that, as nurses, we remember to train our hospital corpsmen,” Castro said. “Our hospital corpsmen must possess the critical battlefield decision-making skills to recognize when a patient requires immediate evacuation to a higher echelon of care.”

Hospital-based medicine and operational medicine are not separate missions, she said. The experience corpsmen receive caring for patients in a military treatment facility helps establish the knowledge, judgment and confidence they will need when operating in more austere environments.

“We have to help them understand that hospital-based training provides the fundamental clinical skills necessary for success in battlefield medicine,” Castro said.

Castro also sees the connection between nursing care and readiness extending to the families of Marines and Sailors.

“When we provide exceptional nursing care to the families of our Marines and Sailors, we allow them to concentrate on their mission,” Castro said. “When we provide exceptional nursing care to the warfighter, we give comfort to those family members that their Marines and Sailors are medically ready to meet the mission.”

That perspective, she said, requires healthcare professionals to look beyond a patient’s uniform. “Always remember that you are taking care of not just a Sailor or a Marine, but someone’s son, daughter, husband or wife,” Castro said.

As military nursing continues to evolve, Castro sees many of its challenges as opportunities for professional and operational growth.

“Challenges and opportunities are oftentimes the same situation viewed through different lenses,” Castro said. Nurses may be called upon for assignments and taskings outside military treatment facilities, providing valuable experiences they might not otherwise receive. Those opportunities, however, can also mean time away from family or interruption of a long-awaited leadership assignment.

For Castro, navigating those competing demands requires maintaining perspective on the broader mission while continuing to invest in people.

Her leadership philosophy is influenced by two short phrases that have stayed with her throughout her career: “Inspire excellence” and retired Gen. Colin Powell’s advice to “love your soldiers.”

Castro said the ideas serve as reminders to remain grateful for those who helped her along the way, understand the mission and use her position to positively influence the people around her.

That philosophy also shapes the advice she offers junior Sailors, nurses and healthcare professionals who hope to become leaders themselves.

“Always be thankful,” Castro said. “Continue to be thankful for opportunities, thankful for the people who support you, thankful for the people who mentor you, thankful for those who give you grace and thankful for those you are privileged to lead.”

Castro said that gratitude extends beyond the mentors and colleagues who have shaped her career. She credits the support of her family with allowing her to continue serving throughout the demands of a lengthy Navy career.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the unwavering and unconditional support of my husband and our three children,” Castro said. “Their support has been a constant throughout my career and has allowed me to continue serving and growing as a Sailor, nurse and leader.”

Castro also credited her predecessor, Capt. Mark Miller, with helping ensure continuity as she assumed the CNO position. She described Miller as a trusted adviser who focused on leaving the organization prepared for the transition.

“He ensured that he set me up for success and that all systems were in place so I could walk in and processes would flow easily,” Castro said. “He put all the right people in place to guarantee a seamless transition.”

As she settles into her new role, Castro said her priorities remain centered on people — supporting the staff entrusted to her, developing the next generation of Defense Health Agency and Navy Medicine professionals and ensuring patients receive high-quality care.

“We’re all in this together,” Castro said. “When we invest in ourselves and in each other, we strengthen our team. Ultimately, we provide better care for those who rely on us.”

Outside of work, Castro enjoys spending time with her family, particularly her husband. The couple recently took up nighttime bicycle rides.

“It’s easier on my knees nowadays,” Castro said with a laugh.

Now back at the command where she once served as a junior nurse, Castro has an opportunity to provide the same mentorship, encouragement and professional development that helped shape her own Navy career.

Nearly 20 years after arriving at Twentynine Palms as a newly commissioned ensign, Castro returns as CNO, beginning a new chapter at a familiar command — this time helping prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals to carry the mission forward.

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