ARLINGTON, Va. — About 90 Navy dental officers are eligible for a new bonus program that offers general dentists with between three and eight years’ dental experience $40,000 to extend for two years, said Capt. Jeff Macdonald, of the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

Eligible dentists could potentially receive the bonus again if they decide to extend again after two years, Macdonald said.

The Navy is offering the money because it has a hard time retaining dentists, who can make more money in the civilian world, he said.

Right now, the Navy has 1,036 dentists, or 89 percent, of its authorized number of billets for dentists, Macdonald said. For more information, go to NAVADMIN (Navy Administrative Message) 053/07 at: www.npc.navy.mil.

Incinerator destroys last VX nerve rocketANNISTON, Ala. — A chemical weapons incinerator in Alabama destroyed the last of nearly 36,000 rockets carrying the deadly nerve agent VX, part of a huge munitions stockpile that dated back to the Cold War.

The rockets were considered the most hazardous part of the stockpile because they were loaded with explosive propellant and VX, which can kill a person within minutes.

Migrated