After dropping out of school and working odd jobs he joined the Army at the age of 24 and after completing training was sent to Europe during World War II to fight in the Allied invasion of Italy.

While stationed at Camp Edwards in 1942 on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Wise met Madolyn DiSesa; the couple became engaged in January 1943 and married on February 12, 1945.

On that day, in Magliano, Italy, Wise carried a wounded man to safety and repeatedly went ahead of his unit to engage the German forces alone.

[2] Only four days after his Medal of Honor action, on June 18, he suffered a shrapnel wound to the head and was awarded a Purple Heart.

He was removed from combat in November and formally presented with the Medal of Honor by General Alexander Patch, commander of the Seventh Army, in Épinal, France.

Among the other medals earned by Wise during the war were two foreign decorations, the Italian Croce di Guerra and the French Croix de Guerre.

Staff Sergeant Wise's official Medal of Honor citation reads: While his platoon was pinned down by enemy small-arms fire from both flanks, he left his position of comparative safety and assisted in carrying 1 of his men, who had been seriously wounded and who lay in an exposed position, to a point where he could receive medical attention.

Returning to his squad, he obtained an M1 rifle and several antitank grenades, then took up a position from which he delivered accurate fire on the enemy holding up the advance.

[2]In 2008, James S. Vlasto with the assistance from Paul W. Bucha, recipient of the Medal of Honor, Vietnam 1968, and Morton Dean, former Anchor and correspondent for CBS and ABC News, formed the Homer L. Wise Memorial Committee[3] to raise funds and successfully erected a Bronze Statue of World War II Medal of Honor Recipient Master Sergeant Homer L. Wise.