Retired U.S. Army Major General Ronald D. Silverman, D.D.S., a 1965 graduate of Cheltenham High School, is one of the highest-ranking military veterans in CHS history.
According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Dr. Silverman was the first Major General in U.S. history to serve as commander of all echelons above division level medical forces in a combat zone and is also the first dentist to command all medical operations in a combat zone.
He was deployed from August 2006 through August 2007 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During this time, he treated captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for a broken tooth. Dr. Silverman fitted Hussein for a crown and found him to be a talkative patient when it came to history.
After two visits to fix the tooth, Hussein scheduled one more visit which never happened:
Serving in Iraq as a two-star general with a professional background in dentistry, Silverman got the call to fix a broken tooth belonging to Hussein after the Iraqi dictator was arrested by U.S. troops. “We did it at night: one chair, me, my assistant, a translator, and Saddam,” Silverman recalls. “He didn’t know my rank because I wasn’t wearing my uniform — just a dentist’s smock.”
From Wisconsin-Madison University’s alumni magazine, OnWisconsin
Hussein proved to be a talkative patient, fluent in English; Silverman knows a little Arabic. The main topic of conversation during Hussein’s three visits? History — Silverman’s major at UW–Madison. “My big thing was Roman history, so Saddam and I talked about the Roman invasion of the Middle East. We also discussed the Crusades and why he thought Christians were so bad or whatever,” he says.
Hussein scheduled one more visit, Silverman says, but “he didn’t make his last appointment. They hanged Saddam Hussein before he had the chance to get his tooth cleaning.”
Ron Silverman ’69, right, and his son Matthew Silverman ’04, JD’10 served in Iraq at the same time | Courtesy of OnWisconsin
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Photo of Saddam Hussein courtesy of Wikipedia Commons