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Dental graduate to answer Army's callWhen College of Dental Medicine graduate Edward Wise Jr. received an official-looking letter from his uncle at the Pentagon, what began as a career-killing shock eventually turned into a career-enhancing opportunity. Dr. Edward Wise Jr.All it took was a respectful explanation and some paperwork to Uncle Sam’s representative at the Department of the Army to change Wise’s job prospects for the next few years from maintaining weapons systems and filling munitions orders to maintaining healthy teeth and filling cavities. Wise, whose dad is a College of Dental Medicine alumnus and whose little brother, John David Wise, begins his first year of dental school here in June, served in Army ROTC as an undergraduate at Wofford College. He then served his obligation as an Army ordnance officer. That completed, he resigned his commission to begin dental training. After some preliminary courses at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, he entered the MUSC College of Dental Medicine. It was just as he was about to complete his dental training that he received his country’s call to duty. “I completed four years as an ordnance officer and got out as a first lieutenant,” Wise said. “Now I can go back into the Army as a captain, be paid to complete an advanced education degree in dentistry (AEDD), and serve three years after that. He said the Army will pay two years of his student loans as well. He has no idea where the Army will send him, but Wise knows he’ll be better off as a dental officer than as an ordnance officer. Eventually, Wise plans to join his dad’s practice in Beaufort. Friday, May 20, 2005
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