The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence to determine if the Veteran was exposed to Agent Orange while serving aboard the USS Passumpsic in Vietnam. The VA needs to confirm whether the ship's service placed the Veteran within the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of Vietnam.
The deciding factor: The Board found that there is insufficient evidence to determine if the Veteran served within the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of Vietnam, which would allow for presumptive service connection under Agent Orange exposure regulations.
- Claimed conditions
- Malignant neoplasm due to or as a consequence of lung cancer
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 15, 2020
- Citation
- 20003740
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,810 · Granted: 23% (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 20003740.
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
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