The Board remands the service connection claims for a heart and lung disability, including as due to claimed in-service herbicide agent exposure, for further development of evidence regarding potential exposure while stationed at Osan Airbase in Korea.
The deciding factor: Remand is warranted due to a pre-decisional error where VA failed to obtain or attempt to obtain records related to the Veteran's claimed herbicide agent exposure during training and exercises in the Korean DMZ.
- Claimed conditions
- Heart disability, Lung disability
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 24, 2024
- Citation
- A24068715
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various disabilities, including an acquired psychiatric disability, headaches, a back disability, heart disability, and residuals of a stroke, as the evidence did not support a finding that these conditions were related to the Veteran's active service or caused by his service-connected left ear disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for a heart disability, to include ischemic heart disease (IHD), due to an incomplete military personnel record and the need for further development of evidence related to exposure to Agent Orange.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for various disabilities, including bilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, heart disability, diabetes mellitus, and neuropathy, to obtain additional evidence and a new medical opinion.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for a lung disability and a bilateral foot disability based on new evidence, but denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss, hypertension, and colon cancer.
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