The Veteran's claims for service connection for herpes zoster oticus and Gulf War syndrome are being remanded due to the need for additional development, including obtaining medical records from his time in the Army Reserves.
The deciding factor: Additional development is necessary as requested by previous remand directives to ensure a complete record is available for decision-making.
- Claimed conditions
- herpes zoster oticus, Gulf War syndrome
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 30, 2020
- Citation
- 20081696
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,592 · Granted: 19% (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 20081696.
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.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's service connection for migraine headaches was granted as secondary to his service-connected disabilities, while other conditions were denied.
- Dismissed
All appeals for service connection and effective dates were dismissed by the Veteran's attorney.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection were dismissed due to a mandatory claims processing rule deficiency. The appeal was not timely filed within one year of the November 2020 and December 2021 rating decisions.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection on multiple conditions have been dismissed due to his withdrawal of the claims.
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