The Board has remanded the case to determine if the Veteran's service on USS Rathburne was within the offshore waters of Vietnam, which would allow for presumptive service connection for diabetes. The claim will be readjudicated under these new provisions.
The deciding factor: Further development is needed to determine whether the ship served within the defined offshore waters of Vietnam.
- Claimed conditions
- type 2 diabetes mellitus
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 14, 2020
- Citation
- 20002960
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.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the appeals for earlier effective dates related to various left and right hip, knee, shoulder, and other conditions as they were freestanding claims not continuously pursued from the initial rating decisions.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for prostatitis, HIV, CHF, GERD, herpes, a pulmonary disability, headaches, and type 2 diabetes mellitus as the evidence did not support a finding of a current disability or a nexus to service or a service-connected disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for type 2 diabetes mellitus, colon cancer, and an initial compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss to secure additional evidence.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for type 2 diabetes mellitus as the evidence did not support a finding of in-service disease or injury indicative of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and there was no credible evidence to establish exposure to herbicide agents on a direct basis.
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