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World War II and the Years Following
| During World War II, a total
of 15 Navy enlisted men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor;
of this number , seven were hospital corpsmen. Members of the Hospital
Corps received 820 major awards and citations (an honor of unique
distinction since none of them bore arms). Other personal medals-the
Navy Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star-were awarded to hospital
corpsmen by the tens and hundreds, almost too numerous to count. On
February 22, 1945, on the summit of Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, along
with six marines, pharmacists mate John Bradley proudly participated
in the raising of our flag, a scene reproduced thousands of times. The
Marine Corps memorial symbolizes this event.
Women were first brought into the Hospital Corps during World War II. On 12 January 1944, the first Hospital Corps School for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) was commissioned to the U.S. Naval Hospital, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland. The first class consisted of 230 enlisted women. Public Law 625 of the Eightieth Congress, approved 12 June 1948, made the WAVES an integral part of the Regular navy. On 2 April 1948, the nomenclature of the Hospital corps ratings were changed to read: Hospital Recruit; Hospital Apprentice; Hospitalman; Hospital corpsman Third Class; Hospital Corpsman Second Class; Hospital Corpsman First Class; Chief Hospital Corpsman ; Warrant officer and Commissioned Warrant officer, Hospital Corps. In June 1956, the Warrant and Commissioned Warrant officer, Hospital Corps, were redisignated as Medical Service Warrant and Chief Medical Service Warrant. Also in 1948, those Hospital corpsman classified as dental technicians were changed to that rating. The rating structure outlines the dental rating as follows: Dental Recruit; Dental Apprentice; Dentalman; Dental Technician Third Class; Dental Technician Second Class; Dental Technician First Class; Chief Dental Technician. Medical Service Warrant, Chief Medical Service Warrant and Medical Service Corps officer, so qualified and assigned, performed administrative and technical duties in dental activities. At this same time, the rating insignia of the Hospital corps was changed from the Red cross so long familiar, to the caduceus. Dental Technicians have the "D" Superimposed over the caduceus.
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