The appellant's claims for death pension benefits and accrued benefits were denied, as the veteran did not have recognized guerrilla service that would qualify him for these benefits. The cause of the veteran's death was not incurred in or aggravated by his military service.
The deciding factor: The veteran had no recognized military service, which disqualifies him from receiving nonservice-connected death pension benefits. Additionally, there were no pending claims at the time of the veteran's death that would allow for accrued benefits to be paid.
- Claimed conditions
- cardio-pulmonary arrest, adenocarcinoma of the colon, acute respiratory failure, sepsis
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 14, 2003
- Citation
- 0307075
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,977 · Granted: 27% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0307075.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's adenocarcinoma of the colon is granted as secondary to his service-connected other specified trauma and stressor related disorder to include alcohol use disorder. The back disability claim is remanded for further development.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death, kidney cancer, is not service-connected. The Board found that the Veteran's cause of death was not related to his military service or a service-connected disability.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, metastatic lung cancer, was found to be related to service and caused or contributed substantially to the Veteran's death. The Board granted entitlement to service connection for the Veteran's cause of death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for the cause of death and burial benefits due to a lack of medical opinion regarding the Veteran's exposure at Camp Lejeune, which could impact his eligibility for these benefits.
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