d. Hospitals in a TO have dental officers assigned in sufficient numbers to
provide oral surgical and other necessary treatment for patient care. This also could be
considered unit dental support, as with division dental officers. Area dental support units
augment the hospital dental staff for routine dental treatment.
e. Command and control for the area dental units is provided by a Dental Service
Headquarters, Team AI. This headquarters is organized in the TOE 8-670 and is
commanded by a colonel, Dental Corps, and has a lieutenant colonel, Medical Service
Corps, assigned as his executive officer. A Medical Service Corps major (Health Service
Operations Officer), a dental NCO, and six other enlisted persons complete the
authorized personnel. This headquarters has the capability of controlling the operations
of four to eight dental teams HA. The dental headquarters serving the corps would
normally be attached, less operational control, to the medical group headquarters
controlling corps medical units in the same area. This would enable the dental
headquarters commander to directly control the dental detachments in the area and also,
if the medical group commander desired, to technically supervise dental officers in
hospitals assigned to the group. A good "rule of thumb" for any TO is that a dental
headquarters allocated to a particular area should be attached to the highest
headquarters having operational control over medical units in that area.
f. The dental Surgeon of the theater Army MEDCOM--a brigadier general, Dental
Corps--is normally delegated operational control of subordinate dental units not having
assigned dental staff officers. The MEDCOM dental surgeon also normally serves as
theater Army dental surgeon.
6-29. VETERINARY SERVICE
a. Veterinary service in the COMMZ is essentially the same as in the corps, as
discussed in paragraph 5-35. In addition, Team XB (b, below) provides long-term
treatment for military animals requiring medical care beyond the capabilities of Team XA.
A brief recapitulation of the bases of allocation of the COMMZ veterinary teams is given
in the chart below:
b. Team XB, Veterinary General Hospital, performs animal care service in the
COMMZ by providing definitive and long-term treatment and hospitalization for up to 50
working dogs that require medical/surgical treatment or observation. This unit is also
capable of providing similar emergency services for large animals on an area basis in
support of civic action programs and emergency-resuscitative care for up to 100 military
working dogs on an area basis. Team XB is allocated based on one per 300-1,000 (or
major fraction thereof) military working dogs supported in the theater.
MD0002
6-25