The Board denied service connection for the cause of the veteran's death and entitlement to Dependents' Educational Assistance, finding no evidence supporting a link between the veteran's cancer and his military service.
The deciding factor: The veteran's squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck was not related to his service due to lack of exposure data and absence of relevant presumptive conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 12, 2008
- Citation
- 0815563
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,500 · 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 0815563.
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- Granted
The Veteran's traumatic injury to the left testicle and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck are service-connected, with the latter being related to herbicide exposure. The Board finds that the Veteran has a current disability as a result of these conditions.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's current heart conditions, including coronary artery disease and hypertension, are directly related to his military service. Additionally, the squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is found to be aggravated by his service-connected heart condition.
- Denied
The veteran's claim for Service Disabled Veterans' Insurance under 38 U.S.C.A. § 1922 was denied because he did not file his application within the required one-year period following his service connection for PTSD, and there is no evidence of incompetence during that time.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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