Navy·Consolidated / merged·In Memoriam
Dental Technician
DT
Served: 1948–2005
Enlisted dental assistants, hygienists, and lab techs — the people who fixed your teeth before a deployment.
The Story
The merger forced every HM to learn dental basics. USNI Proceedings later argued in "The Tooth Shall Set You Free" (2020) that the merger was a mistake — the Navy quietly admitted the same in 2018 by re-creating a dental-specific NEC track.
Epitaph
“Pulled teeth. Got pulled too. Navy quietly grew it back.”
Sources
- NAVADMIN 214/05navadmin-viewer.fly.dev
- Stars and Stripes — DT Mergerwww.stripes.com