Becoming a dentist thanks to the Army

NEWBERRY — Many may know Dr. John Campbell Lake Jr. as the owner and dentist at Newberry Dental Care, but what many may not know is that it was thanks to the United States Army that he became a dentist.

The 37-year old Ware Shoals native said he joined the Army thanks to a scholarship program.

“When I graduated from college, and was accepted to dental school, I applied for the Health Professionals Scholarship, a scholarship offered to doctors, dentists and veterinarians. I was accepted for that and technically you get commissioned right away,” Lake said.

That was in 2005, but Lake said he was not active duty during that time.

“So I was in the military through dental school and in 2009 I started active duty,” he said.

Once he started active duty, Lake said he was in the Army for five years. During his first year in the Army he was at Moncrief Hospital (Fort Jackson), here he did his dental residency program.

Lake was at Fort Jackson (Columbia) for one year, but then, as he said, his military career took an interesting turn.

“They relocated me to Hawaii,” he said.

Lake said the circumstances for him moving were a bit unusual. When Lake graduated his residency he was told he could stay in South Carolina.

“I wanted to stay in South Carolina, at Fort Jackson, my wife is an attorney and she passed the bar exam and has a legal license in South Carolina, we had a life there,” he said.

After about six months, Lake said he received a call from the assignment person (the person in charge of where you go in the military). She told him they had an assignment for him and they needed to reassign him as soon as possible to a new duty station.

“She said the location is Hawaii and you’ll be there for three years,” Lake said. “So, I got real quiet.”

Lake said he then called his wife (Katherine) and told her what was going on and told her they were going to Hawaii.

Following that phone call, Lake’s commander called him and told him they wanted him there (Hawaii) quick, in three weeks. Lake said that was unusual and reassignments were not usually so quick and sudden.

“The next morning I get a call from the commander again, he needed to see me first thing. I go see him and he said ‘you won’t believe what I got first thing this morning.’ It was deployment orders for our region,” Lake said.

Lake asked if that meant he would not deploy to Hawaii, since Hawaii was not in the region. However, since his reassignment orders came about 12 hours earlier, he was no longer in the region.

“Instead of deploying to Afghanistan I went to Hawaii, I never deployed the rest of my time in the military,” he said.

Lake and his family moved to to Hawaii in January 2010, he said that was also the time a big snow storm hit South Carolina. They arrived in Hawaii where it is 85 degrees and he went swimming the next day.

It was also thanks to Hawaii that the Lakes would eventually locate to Newberry. One of his wife’s friends from college and her husband (an Army helicopter pilot) became their neighbors in Hawaii.

“We got to be good friends with them, he (Mackey Price) is from Newberry and he is why I’m here in Newberry. When it was time to get out of the Army and started looking at practices, he encouraged us to look up Newberry. Robert, my uncle, is also an attorney here in town.”

When the time came go leave the Army, Lake said he started looking for a practice and found one here in town.

When it comes to what led Lake to join the Army, he said there were two reasons. The first was financial, he said dental school is expensive and the Army paid for 100 percent of everything and gave him a stipend with the Health Professionals Scholarship.

“It is a good program for those looking in the medical field,” he said.

The second reason he joined was because he wanted to do something before settling down.

“Dentistry is a job most people buy a practice and then you are there 20-30 years, which is what I plan on doing here. I wanted to do something before I did that, travel, see parts of the world I hadn’t see before, have an adventure. My way to still have a living and also have an adventure before I settled,” Lake said.

And Lake said it worked out pretty well.

“My experience in the Army was so good from a dental perspective,” Lake said.

During his time in the Army, two positive things happened. The first, they put him in charge of the externship program. This program is for dental students (already in the Army) who want to figure out what they wanted to do, Lake said.

“The Army pays them to come to Hawaii and show what life is like as a dentist. My experience was so good I was in charge of it,” Lake said. “That was one thing I did, I loved that. My commander told me, ‘show them what it is like and have a good time.’”

The second positive experience Lake had involved a national magazine. He said the head of the Army Dental Corps was approached by “Dentaltown” and requested to interview a young dentist for their new grad issue. Lake was chosen for the interview.

“They called me to do it and it was just questions about how great the Army is, it was a normal interview,” Lake said. “I did the interview and didn’t think much about it.”

Lake was then shocked to find out he was on the cover.

“Months go by, one day I had ten of my friends call me all at the same time. I had no idea, I didn’t know the article was out — not only was I on the cover, but the write up was five pages,” he said.

Lake said anyone interested in joining the military should talk to someone with experience.

“Seek someone who has done it before and get their perspective. Generally speaking, I had a good experience, a much better one than some. It is a great way to get experience, debt repaid, go on an adventure before a normal life,” he said. “It is a great thing for a young person willing to travel and be flexible.”