Colonel Steve Bristow serves as the Project Manager for Rapid Equipping Force, a Vice Chief of Staff initiative. His duties include; providing operational commanders with immediately employable solutions to enhance lethality, survivability, and force protection through insertion of COTS/GOTS and future force technologies, acquisition Direct Support to the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) and the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group (AWG), as well as acquisition General Support to the Army.

Colonel Bristow was born in Sumter, South Carolina and is a graduate of Francis Marion College in Florence, South Carolina. He was commissioned through ROTC as an Army Signal Corps Officer. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Western International University in Phoenix, Arizona. His military education includes the Signal Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the US Army Command and General Staff College and the Advanced Program Manager's Course. He is a 2004 graduate of the US Army War College.

Colonel Bristow served in a variety of command and staff positions. His previous assignment prior to the REF was the Deputy Program Executive Officer (DPEO) for Infrastructure, Program Executive Office - Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) located on Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He was a Battalion Signal Officer for 3/68 Armor, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado. In Schwabish Gemund, Germany he was a Company Commander in the 38th Signal Battalion, 56th Field Artillery Brigade, (Pershing). At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was an Assistant Operations Officer in the 4th Psychological Operations (PSYOP) Group (Airborne) and Company Commander of the 90th Strategic Dissemination Company, 4th PSYOP Group (Airborne). While at Fort Bragg he served in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

His Acquisition Corps assignments include duties as a Signals Test Officer with the Electronic Proving Grounds (EPG) at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He served as a Systems Acquisition Manager and Chief of Materiel Branch, US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While assigned to the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) in Alexandria, Virginia he performed duties as Chief of the Command and Control (C2) Division and as a Senior Test and Evaluation Officer for the C3 Evaluations Directorate. Colonel Bristow served as an Armaments Cooperation Country Desk Officer for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army - Defense Exports and Cooperation (DASA-DEC), Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA(AL&T)). He was responsible for US Army Armaments Cooperation activities with Canada and ten European countries. As a Product Manager, Colonel Bristow served on the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program as PM for the FCS Advanced Collaborative Environment (ACE). Prior to his assignment as PM REF, he served as Project Manager for Enterprise Infostructure (PM EI), as Project Manager for DOD Biometrics, and as Deputy Program Executive Officer (DPEO) for Enterprise Information Systems (EIS).

Colonel Bristow's military awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, five awards of the Meritorious Service Medal, three awards of the Army Commendation Medal, three awards of the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal with 3 Bronze Stars, the Saudi Arabia - Kuwait Liberation Medal, and the Kuwait National Defense Medal. He has also earned the Senior Parachutist Badge and the Army Staff Identification Badge.

Colonel Bristow has two children, daughter Raleigh Caitlyn and a son, August James (Gus).