The Chief Usher of the White House is "Stoked"

The Chief Usher never seen this day coming. Every now and again, during a moment alone, he takes a look at his surroundings and says to himself, "Look Where I am! This is pretty amazing." The Usher was referring to the President Barrack Obama. Coming from a background of segregation and prejudices, retired vet. Stephen W Rochon knows all to well the struggles of an oppressed people, and never thought that he'd witness the day that the nation would be led by an African American.

Chief Usher of the White House is also titled Director of the Executive Residence. Duties consist of the supervision and maintenance of the White House. With 95 employees under him, everyone has an important assigned duty to contribute in the upkeep of the house. There are workers that are in charge of bed preparation and maintenance of the oval rooms, to the chefs that are in charge of providing the most healthiest of cuisines for the First family. Rochon's role is to make sure that the First Family is comfortable with the hospice of all employees while maintaining the infrastructure of the 200 year old house. A facilitator, is Rachon, in training the crew to be adherent to the most subtle details. The things that truly "top off the morning" for someone. In fact, besides the President's family, the chief is the first to greet him in the morning as he gets off of his elevator. The dialog consists of, "Good Morning Mr. President!", Stephen W. Rochon told Jet magazine as he took them on an exclusive tour into the White House. A very proud and historic moment is this event for Rachon, and he definitely appreciates it, for he has bared witness, not many years ago, the troubling times in America regarding race relations.

The National Defense University Graduate was working on a book about life on Pea Island as a Coastal Guard during the Vietnam war. Out of the blue he says, he gets a call from a White House official with a job offer as Chief Usher. Initially he replied "What the heck is chief usher?", but after about nine interviews-including one with former President, Bush and a separate one with the former First Lady, he was in. He became immediately acclimated to the home with his first assignment due to be complete in two weeks. The Queen of England was paying the states a visit and Bush needed the newly hired director to facilitate a warm and welcoming stay for England's royalty. The hospitality was such a hit that the Queen invited Rochon and his family for a stay at Buckingham Palace.

Just think, had he never took the job two years years ago, he would of missed out on experiencing an extremely important piece of history in the making. He acknowledges this with statements like, "had no idea...that I would be serving the first African-American President".