Photo by Andrew Pons from Unsplash

VA Roulette 2

I had gotten VA dental care since 1968 for an injury in a head on collision that destroyed all my front teeth, upper and lower. When a clasp broke on my upper partial, the VA suddenly decided in 2010 I was not entitled to VA dental care because I was “not rated for my teeth.”

I was only rated for the nerve damage sustained when my teeth were knocked out. If I wanted dental care, I would have to refile my disability claim from 1968. They warned me I could lose the ten percent rating I already had. I didn’t care. I was by then getting a little more than a hundred dollars a month, which went directly to my savings account and only got tapped every couple of years. I needed dental care, not money.

My USAF medical records were not to be found and the records from my original VA evaluation were worthless. I needed witnesses who saw me before and after the accident. The airman with whom I bought my first car, Louis Fejszes, had changed his name to the English translation of the Hungarian, Louis Axeman, and I knew that because we had remained in touch all those years. Lou had been going to school at Michigan State University, and he told me I could do the same every chance he got.

Another of the “college men” who persuaded me I could go to college was Steve Salathiel, and I was still in touch with him as well. He had also been injured in an accident when his VW Bug was rear ended; my…