{"id":22347,"date":"2021-10-26T14:41:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T14:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=22347&post_type=story"},"modified":"2021-11-12T19:06:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T19:06:26","slug":"house-call","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/house-call\/","title":{"rendered":"House Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall 2021\u00a0<\/em>|\u00a0By Jenna Marina Lee<\/em><\/p>\n

Tom Weichart \u201904MS<\/strong> was at a\u00a0shopping center outside of Fort\u00a0Bragg, North Carolina, in May 2004\u00a0when he received a phone call that he\u00a0thought had to be a prank.<\/p>\n

The formal voice on the other end\u00a0told him he had been nominated,\u00a0along with three other individuals,\u00a0by high-ranking officials within the\u00a0Army to interview for a nursing\u00a0position that served the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Who put you up to this? No\u00a0way,\u2019 \u201d Weichart says.<\/p>\n

Five months later, Weichart was\u00a0seated in the Eisenhower Executive\u00a0Office Building with a direct view\u00a0of the White House as he answered\u00a0every medical, security and\u00a0situational question thrown at him.<\/p>\n

It turned out the UCF nursing<\/a> alum\u00a0nailed the interview.<\/p>\n

Weichart served as a nurse at\u00a0the White House from December\u00a02005 until August 2008 \u2014 when\u00a0he resigned to pursue his calling to\u00a0become a pastor and build a ministry\u00a0in Sanford, Florida \u2014 and says his\u00a0time there was the greatest honor\u00a0of his 16 years as a member of the\u00a0U.S. Army.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very humbling because of\u00a0what it represents,\u201d Weichart says.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not representing one man. It\u2019s\u00a0representing the government. It\u2019s\u00a0representing our nation. You\u2019re\u00a0always in awe. You walk down the\u00a0hallways, and you\u2019re standing in\u00a0places where Lincoln was lain in\u00a0state. You stand in the Oval Office\u00a0where [Harry] Truman [announced\u00a0Japan\u2019s surrender] to end World\u00a0War II; the Rose Garden where\u00a0[John F.] Kennedy and Martin\u00a0Luther King Jr. walked. It\u2019s.\u00a0hard to put into words\u00a0sometimes because you\u2019re\u00a0always pinching yourself.\u00a0But it reaffirms that if you\u00a0work hard enough, do all\u00a0the right things the best you can,\u00a0opportunities will come your way,\u00a0and you just have to be available\u00a0to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your journey to the White House started when you joined the Army at 17. What prompted that decision?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>My mom is Korean. My father was\u00a0from Ohio and stationed in Korea\u00a0during the war. I was born in South\u00a0Korea and became a U.S. citizen in\u00a01976. When I was 10, everything went\u00a0sideways on a personal level. My mom\u00a0was diagnosed with cancer and died\u00a0when I was 12. My dad was diagnosed\u00a0with severe bipolar disorder. My\u00a0brother and I were in and out of the\u00a0foster care system until I graduated\u00a0high school. I made a lot of poor\u00a0choices in my youth. I looked at my\u00a0options. I had no money for college.\u00a0I wanted a fresh start and the Army\u00a0had the GI Bill, so I saw it as a path to\u00a0recovery in a sense.<\/p>\n

[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n

[blockquote source=”” cite=”” color=”” css_class=””]\u201cIt was very humbling because of what it represents. It\u2019s not representing one man. … It\u2019s representing our nation.\u201d[\/blockquote]<\/p>\n

[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n

What was a typical day\u00a0like for a White House nurse?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>There were no typical days. We had a\u00a0team of six physicians, seven nurses\u00a0and six physician assistants, and\u00a0they\u2019re all nonpolitical appointments\u00a0[filled by military service members].\u00a0Our No. 1 mission was to take care of\u00a0the president. We also took care of\u00a0the vice president, cabinet members,\u00a0senior staff, and we have a clinic in\u00a0the White House for midlevel staff. If\u00a0you\u2019re assigned to the president, it\u2019s\u00a0very stressful. You would even sleep\u00a0at the White House on those shifts.\u00a0You\u2019re always an arm\u2019s reach away.\u00a0The biggest stress for me sometimes\u00a0was making sure that I didn\u2019t get\u00a0caught in the camera view when there\u00a0was media around.<\/p>\n

Did working at the White House ever become mundane?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>I was an airborne soldier, so I used\u00a0to jump out of airplanes. I remember\u00a0being told as a young man, \u201cIf you\u00a0ever get to a place where there\u2019s not a\u00a0little bit of fear and anxiety when you\u00a0jump out of a plane, you need to stop\u00a0jumping out of a plane.\u201d That\u2019s the\u00a0same thing with how this job felt. It\u00a0kept me on my p\u2019s and q\u2019s.<\/p>\n

What was one of your most memorable interactions with President George W. Bush?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>On my last day at the White House,\u00a0I got to go to the Oval Office and say\u00a0goodbye to the president. He was\u00a0surprised I was leaving and asked\u00a0why. I told him I felt the call to go into\u00a0the ministry. And he replied, \u201cWell\u00a0I guess you\u2019re going to be serving a\u00a0bigger boss than me.\u201d He shook my\u00a0hand and thanked me for everything.\u00a0I still get a Christmas card every year\u00a0from President Bush and Mrs. Laura\u00a0Bush. It means a lot.<\/p>\n

What was the most rewarding experience about your time at the White House?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>I\u2019d say probably just seeing the human\u00a0side of our leaders. Regardless of\u00a0politics, these men and women \u2014\u00a0you may like them, you may hate\u00a0them \u2014 they are human, too. They\u00a0have feelings, they have emotions,\u00a0they have beliefs, they have good and\u00a0bad qualities. Interacting with them\u00a0the way I did, I saw them live with the\u00a0weight of knowing the decisions they\u00a0make affect everybody.<\/p>\n

[photo id=”22503″ title=”Weichart-1200×800″ alt=”Portrait of Tom Weichart, wearing a black Nike polo shirt and khaki pants, sitting near lake at sunset” position=”center” width=”100%”][\/photo]<\/p>\n

Following his time at the White House, Tom Weichart \u201904MS<\/span> stays busy as a nurse practitioner in Central Florida and senior pastor of Sanford\u2019s Church at the Well.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22413,"template":"","categories":[999],"tags":[405,1452],"class_list":["post-22347","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumknights","tag-college-of-nursing","tag-ucf-alumni","issues-1541","issues-fall-2021"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF Alum on What It's like Being a White House Nurse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tom Weichart \u201904MS, who was born in South Korea and became a U.S. citizen, reflects on his time during the George W. 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