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Paula K. Jackan Trivette Collection

WVHP

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Paula K. Jackan Trivette (b. 1953) served in the Army Nurse Corps from 1975-1993. Paula K. Jackan Trivette was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin on March 14, 1953. She obtained a college scholarship through the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing Program, and attended Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin for two years before going to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. to complete her degree. After graduating from the nursing program, Trivette was commissioned as a first lieutenant and went to San Antonio, Texas for basic training in 1975. She was then stationed at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio until 1978, during which time she worked in a surgical ICU unit and also met and married her husband, also a servicemember in the United States Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps. Trivette was then assigned to Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs, Colorado as first an assistant head nurse and then head nurse. She had her first son while at Fort Carson before being assigned to Frankfurt Army Medical Center and Frankfurt Army 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband also stationed in Germany. While in Germany, Trivette was promoted from major to captain. Upon returning to the United States, Trivette's assignment was Walter Reed Army Medical Center. As her assignment there drew to a close, a White House nurse position became available, and Trivette interviewed for and was given that position. She worked as a White House nurse from 1987 for President Reagan to 1993 for George H.W. Bush. She then retired from military service with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

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