As a combat pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen, Dr. Wise served in the 99th Pursuit Squadron. His plane was shot down in a raid on the Polesti oil fields in Romania and he was a prisoner of war for about three months. He was rescued and repatriated by Soviet Union Forces. He was a member of the "Caterpilar Club", an organization of Tuskegee Airmen who were shot down. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Combat Air medal. He was a resident of Lanham, Md. and was born and raised in Cheriton, Virginia. He was a graduate of Virginia Union University and after the war was a graduate of the Howard University School of Medicine.