Assignment: White House; a military presence with the president dates to the founding of the nation. Richard Tubb, director of White House Medical Unit - Col. Dr

Airman, March, 2003 by Tim Dougherty

Air Force doctors and flight surgeons are all under pressure to keep their patients as healthy as possible. For Col. (Dr.) Richard Tubb, one can only imagine the stress.

When your job is the director of the White House Medical Unit, and your No. 1 patient is the most powerful man in the world, the word "pressure" takes on a whole new meaning.

Tubb said his objective, and the objective of the entire White House Military Office, is to help the president be the best he can possibly be while performing his job as commander in chief.

"I'm an Air Force family physician, so I approach the president and his health care in the context of his life," Tubb said. "That means I'm concerned about his job and what impact it has on his health, and I'm concerned about his health and what impact it has on his job. It's a whole-person type concept."

As a flight surgeon, Tubb said he sees some similarities between that job and taking care of the president.

"Being an Air Force flight surgeon, I'm used to being a company doctor, which means you take care of the person in the conduct of the mission," Tubb said. "The Air Force is interested in the pilot and how he or she conducts the job. I'm interested in our pilot here and his performance in the cockpit."

As the director of the medical unit, Tubb runs a staff of j about 25 of the nearly 2,000 people assigned to the White House Military Office. Tubb said that's a lot of people to take care of the health and needs of one person, even if that person is the president.

"I don't think it's intuitive as to why, particularly with such a healthy, vigorous president, the country needs such a large medical office at the White House," Tubb said.

However, Tubb said that when the entire mission of the team is considered, it starts to make sense.

"Our No. 1 mission is taking care of the president, the vice president and their families," Tubb said. He added that they aren't focused just on their performance and health now, but for decades to come as well.

The second priority of the medical unit is something Tubb refers to as protective medical support.

"That's working hand-in-hand with all the emergency action elements of the White House Military Office so that the unique responsibilities of the president can be conducted no matter where and no matter when," Tubb said.

A classic example of this kind of support was Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the United States.

"When we provide protective medical support, view our primary mission as an extension of the Secret Service's mission," Tubb said. "In my view, the Secret Service has two principal roles. One role is prevention. These are the guys behind the scenes trying to prevent bad guys from formulating plans and carrying them out. The second mission is interdiction. In that capacity, the Secret Service is tasked with interrupting an attack."

Tubb said that anytime the Secret Service is called to perform the interdiction mission, by definition it becomes a medical scenario.

The best way to illustrate this, Tubb said, is to think of the first question someone would ask if the president were whisked away to safety by the Secret Service: "Is the president all right?"

"By definition, that question is a medical one," Tubb said.

More than medicine

But the White House Medical Unit is just one part of the larger White House Military Office, which can trace its history back to 1789 with President George Washington's aide-de-camp. The role as personal aide has continued since.

"The military's relationship with the office of the president began when our nation began," said Mark Rosenker, former deputy assistant to the president and director, White House Military Office, from 2001 to 2002. Rosenker, the mobilization assistant to Secretary of the Air Force James Roche as a major general in the Air Force Reserve, was selected in November 2002 by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Transportation and Safety Board.

"Even back in 1789, President Washington understood the value and necessity of having a military office to carry out actions and orders and to manage certain functions within the White House," Rosenker said.

Fast forward to today. Because of the need for command and control, ceremonies, transportation or instantaneous connectivity, the best people to provide these services still come from the military, Rosenker said.

In addition to the medical unit, the White House Military Office includes the White House Communications Agency, Presidential Emergency Operation Center, Presidential Airlift Group, Marine Helicopter Squadron One, Camp David, White House Transportation Agency and White House Mess. While all military branches are represented and contribute to the organization, bluesuiters can be found in a number of high-profile positions.

"We've got a lot of fabulous Air Force people on the staff," Rosenker said, "As an Air Force reservist, I'm sensitive to the important role that airmen play in support of the president."

And while the positions he mentions -- pilot of Air Force One, chief of White House ceremonies, the president's physician, the military office lawyer and others -- might be high profile, Rosenker said the people are at their best when they aren't noticed.