The veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, all claimed as due to Agent Orange exposure during service, were denied because there was no credible evidence of the occurrence of the alleged stressors or diseases.
The deciding factor: There is no credible supporting evidence that the veteran engaged in combat with the enemy and therefore his lay statements cannot be accepted without corroboration. The VA examinations did not find post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and there was insufficient corroborative evidence for other claimed conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- removal of growths from the throat, removal of growths from the feet, chronic headaches, allergic rhinitis, fatigue, sleep disturbance, depression, onychomycosis, seborrheic keratosis, cherry angioma
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 5, 2006
- Citation
- 0616214
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,377 · Granted: 17% (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 0616214.
What this means for you
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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 remanded the case for additional development, including obtaining in-service psychiatric treatment records and scheduling a VA examination to determine the nature and etiology of any acquired psychiatric disorder.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an initial compensable disability rating for onychomycosis was denied as the condition did not require treatment and covered less than 5% of his body. The Board also remanded issues regarding service connection for left ear hearing loss and entitlement to a compensable disability rating for right ear hearing loss.
- Denied
The Veteran's depression was rated at 50 percent prior to July 1, 2016. The Board found that the evidence did not support a higher rating due to occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity. For TDIU, the Veteran had multiple service-connected disabilities but his education and work experience were sufficient for sedentary or light labor employment.
- Granted
The Veteran's depression was rated at 50 percent prior to September 27, 2017. From September 27, 2017, the rating for depression increased to 70 percent.
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