The petition to reopen the claim of service connection for lung cancer, claimed as due to or a result of exposure to herbicides/Agent Orange (AO), is granted. The Veteran's service on the USS Navarro in Vietnam waters was considered but not sufficient to meet the criteria for presumptive service connection under VA regulations.
The deciding factor: The evidence received since the October 2012 denial includes statements and testimony from the Veteran, which provided greater detail about his exposure to herbicides/Agent Orange (AO) in Thailand. The Federal Circuit's decision in Procopio v. Wilkie extended the presumption of herbicide exposure to veterans with service in the territorial seas of the Republic of Vietnam.
- Claimed conditions
- lung cancer
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- Gulf War
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 18, 2019
- Citation
- 19130086
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,677 · Granted: 26% (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 19130086.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a higher evaluation of his service-connected chronic fatigue and weakness due to chemotherapy and radiation treatment for lung cancer is granted, with an evaluation of 60 percent.,The Veteran's claim for a compensable rating for residuals of lung cancer from May 1, 2005 is denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a need for further evaluation of the Veteran's lung cancer and its relationship to service, including any in-service granuloma.
- Dismissed
The Board has vacated its decisions granting service connection for lung cancer and remanding issues of tinnitus and TDIU, but the Veteran's death means these appeals are dismissed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for kidney cancer and lung cancer due to a lack of adequate medical opinion regarding the etiology of his kidney cancer, which is presumed to be related to herbicide exposure. The claim for lung cancer is inextricably intertwined with the kidney cancer claim.
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