Walter Reed salutes U.S. Navy Dental Corps, Medal of Honor recipients

Story by Bernard Little

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

Walter Reed salutes the U.S. Navy Dental Corps for its 112 years of service to the nation.

The corps includes U.S. Navy officers with a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Dental Medicine (DMD) degree who practice dentistry to ensure service members are ready to deploy globally. In addition, members of the corps provide care to other Military Health System (MHS) beneficiaries, including retirees and the families of service members and retirees.

Navy dentists are stationed at military treatment facilities, dental education institutions, clinics, hospitals, research units, on ships, and with Marine Forces located within the United States and various overseas locations. Navy dentists deploy in support of combat operations, disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance missions.

On Aug. 22, 1912, the 62nd U.S. Congress passed an act, signed by President Howard Taft, establishing the U.S. Navy Dental Corps and authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to appoint no more than 30 acting assistant dental surgeons to be a part of the Navy Medical Department.
Today, the U.S. Navy Dental Corps includes more than 1,400 active duty and reserve dentists, and over 500 practicing or training in 15 dental specialties, according to Navy Medicine.

“We provide unparalleled service, support, and patient care for our Sailors, Marines, and families around the world,” stated Rear Adm. Walter Brafford, chief of the U.S. Navy Dental Corps and commander of Naval Medical Forces Development Command. “Navy Medicine and Navy Dentistry are entering a time of tremendous and unprecedented transformation. We continue to adapt and innovate as a Corps, and without a doubt, our people are the Dental Corps’ greatest strength and most valuable asset,” he added.

Walter Reed Dentistry

The Directorate of Dental Services at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, which includes a number of U.S. Navy Dental Corps -officers, is responsible for the dental care and health readiness for primarily active-duty patients at the medical center and the National Capital Region.

The Department of Primary Care Dentistry handles annual dental readiness exams, sick-call, and other primary dental needs. The Department of Health Readiness conducts medical readiness services (periodic health assessments), operational/deployment health services, and active-duty medical and dental record services. The Hospital Dental Clinic provides referral specialty dental services to active-duty patients and their families in the areas of prosthodontics, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, and oral pathology. The clinic also supports the urgent dental needs of hospital in-patients and emergency department support.

The Naval Postgraduate Dental School (NPDS), a directorate of the Naval Medical Leader and Professional Development Command (NMLPDC), is also located with Walter Reed on Naval Support Activity Bethesda.

In addition, Walter Reed also honors Medal of Honor recipients who served in military medicine, with their illustrations and biographies on display as part of an exhibit on the second deck of Bldg. 10 outside of Clark Auditorium. Among those honored are the only two U.S. Navy Dental Corps members to receive the Medal of Honor.

Five years after the U.S. Navy Dental Corps was established, the United States entered World War I. During that war, the corps expanded from 35 to more than 500 personnel, including 124 dentists commissioned in the Regular Navy, according to Navy Medicine.

U.S. Navy Dental Corps personnel were deployed on ships and attached to Marine Corps units, where they also served on the front lines. Two such dental officers stationed on the battlefields of France were Lt. (j.g.) Weedon E. Osborne and Lt. Cmdr. Alexander G. Lyle.

Medal of Honor: Lt. (j.g.) Weedon Osborne

Osborne was the first commissioned U.S. Navy officer killed while serving in World War I.

Osborne, a Chicago native, graduated from Northwestern University Dental School in 1915. He was appointed lieutenant junior grade in the U.S. Naval Coast Defense Reserve on May 8, 1917, and transferred to the battleship USS Alabama in December 1917. On March 26, 1918, he was assigned as a replacement dental officer for the 6th Marine Regiment of the Marine Expeditionary Force in France.

He arrived at his regiment on May 14, 1918, and when he learned his dental equipment would be delayed in reaching him, volunteered for service on a front line first aid party. The 6th Marines became involved in the Battle of Belleau Wood on June 6, 1918, and received orders to advance on the village of Bouresches. The Marines were hit by mortar and heavy-machine gun fire, and Osborne repeatedly rescued Marines and tended to their injuries. One of those injured included Capt. Donald Duncan, who commanded the 96th Company.

Duncan was leading a charge when he was struck in the abdomen by machine gun fire. Osborne and two others carried the severely wounded captain to a nearby grove of trees. After setting Duncan down, an artillery shell exploded nearby, killing Osborne, Duncan, and one other Marine. For his action, Osborne was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. His citation stated, “Having joined the regiment but a few days before its entry into the line and, being new to the service, he displayed a heroism worthy of its best tradition.” In addition, the Army awarded him a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart. He is buried in Belleau-Aisne Cemetery, France. In addition, the destroyer USS Osborne (DD 295), commissioned in May 1920, was named for him. The ship was decommissioned in May 1930. The USS Osborne Dental Clinic in Chicago is named in Osborne’s honor as well.

For a time, Osborne’s Medal of Honor disappeared. It resurfaced in 2002 when an individual in South Carolina attempted to illegally sell it. The Federal Bureau of Investigations confiscated it, and Osborne’s Medal of Honor is now on display in the U.S. Navy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Medal of Honor: Lt. Cmdr. Alexander G. Lyle

Lyle graduated with a dentistry degree from Baltimore College of Dentistry in 1912. He received his commission as a lieutenant (j.g.) in 1915 and was assigned to Newport Naval Station, Rhode Island until June 1917. He was then assigned to the 5th Regiment, U.S. Marines as part of the American Expeditionary Force in France.

In April 1918, Lyle, now a lieutenant commander, was stationed on the front lines near Verdun with the 5th regiment. On April 23, 1918, the area came under heavy enemy shellfire. Cpl. Thomas Regan was hit by shrapnel that severed his femoral artery. While under attack, Lyle’s administered first aid to control the bleeding and saved the corporal’s life. His Medal of Honor citation reads, in part, “Lt. Cmdr. Lyle rushed to the assistance of Cpl. Thomas Regan, who was seriously wounded, and administered such effective surgical aid while bombardment was still continuing, as to save the life of Cpl. Regan.” Lyle would also receive the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit, and the Italian War Cross.

In the interwar years, Lyle was attached to the 4th Marines in China. From 1932 to 1936, he was chief of the dental service at Newport Naval Hospital in Rhode Island. In March 1943, he was selected rear admiral and appointed chief of the Dental Corps, the first Navy dentist to hold flag rank. He was assigned to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery as the Inspector of Dental Activities for the Navy, serving in that position until 1945 when he became General Inspector (Dental), retiring as a vice admiral in August 1948. He helped implement mobile dental units, which became a lasting legacy. He died in 1955 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Of the over 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients, only three have been dental officers. In addition to Osborne and Lyle, Army dentist Capt. Benjamin Salomon received it for his actions during World War II. During heavy fighting on July 7, 1944, on Saipan in the Mariana Islands, where his aid station was under assault, Salomon was able to grab machine gun near him, kill the enemy that entered the hospital tent and order the wounded to be evacuated. He stayed and fired upon the incoming enemy with the machine gun to cover their withdrawal. When an Army team returned to the site days later, Salomon’s body was found slumped over the machine gun, with the bodies of nearly 100 enemy troops piled up in front of his position. He was covered with bullets and bayonet wounds. Salomon was laid to rest in Glendale, California.

Salomon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, 58 years after his actions on Saipan. This was because Salomon was serving as a medical officer with a Red Cross brassard upon his arm, which would seemingly have disqualified him under the Geneva Convention rule stating no medical officer can bear arms against the enemy. However, the guideline for awarding the Medal of Honor to medical non-combatants states that one may not receive the Medal of Honor for actions in an offensive. More recent interpretations of the convention, as well as the U.S. Laws of Land Warfare, allow use of personal weapons (i.e., rifles and pistols) in self-defense or in defense of patients and staff, as long as the medical soldier does not wear the Red Cross.