The Board has remanded the case due to missing service medical records and requests for them from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). The appellant's claim will be reconsidered after obtaining these records.
The deciding factor: Service medical records are needed to properly assess the veteran's hearing impairment during his active duty training period.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral hearing impairment
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 7, 2004
- Citation
- 0414571
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 464 · Granted: 21% (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 0414571.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for bilateral hearing impairment and tinnitus due to inadequate examination results from a previous VA examination. The Veteran needs to be provided with updated examinations that explain their findings in layman's terms.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including diabetes mellitus, bilateral hearing impairment, and peripheral neuropathies, render him unable to maintain substantially gainful employment.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran does not have a service-connected disability for hearing loss, heat stroke residuals, or bilateral knee pain. The claim for higher evaluation of right shoulder injury is denied.
- Granted
The Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus were granted, effective January 27, 2012. His initial rating of 10 percent was confirmed.
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