Steve Buyer: “In the fall of 2005, I had the House Veterans' Affairs Committee track OIF and OEF dental costs in the VA. In the fall…”

“In the fall of 2005, I had the House Veterans' Affairs Committee track OIF and OEF dental costs in the VA. In the fall of 2006, I requested the Army to report on and document Army reserve component dental demobilization treatment costs. The Army Medical Command tasked its DENCOM to then study and document demobilization dental treatment requirements no later than 30 November, 2006. This study was considered insufficient by the then Surgeon General, General Kiley. We then spoke. He then instituted another study that was conducted in the fall of 2007. I was briefed on the second study this past February by the Chief of the Army Dental Corps in San Antonio, Texas, and considered this study seriously flawed in its methodology, study construct, and assumptions. The DENCOM told me that dental care during demobilization was not their mission. Shockingly, I then called upon General Cody, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army; and Lieutenant General Schoomaker, the Army Surgeon General, the next day to express my concerns with the study and the lack of mission concern by the General of the Army Dental Corps for the demobilization dental requirements of our returning soldiers.”