Citation Nr: 0809846 Decision Date: 03/25/08 Archive Date: 04/09/08 DOCKET NO. 06-10 777A ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Boston, Massachusetts THE ISSUE Entitlement to non-service-connected disability pension benefits. REPRESENTATION Appellant represented by: Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD L. Cramp, Counsel INTRODUCTION The veteran served on active duty from June 1978 to July 1981. This case comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal of an August 2005 decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Boston, Massachusetts. FINDING OF FACT The veteran did not have any wartime service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for basic eligibility for VA pension benefits have not been met. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 101, 1521 (West. 2002 & Supp. 2006); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.203 (2007). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The veteran is seeking non-service-connected pension benefits. The Board will initially discuss certain preliminary matters, and will then address the pertinent law and regulations and their application to the facts and evidence. The Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000 The Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000 (VCAA), codified in pertinent part at 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 5103, 5103A (West 2002), and the pertinent implementing regulation, codified at 38 C.F.R. § 3.159 (2006), provide that VA will assist a claimant in obtaining evidence necessary to substantiate a claim but is not required to provide assistance to a claimant if there is no reasonable possibility that such assistance would aid in substantiating the claim. They also require VA to notify the claimant and the claimant's representative, if any, of any information, and any medical or lay evidence, not previously provided to the Secretary that is necessary to substantiate the claim. As part of the notice, VA is to specifically inform the claimant and the claimant's representative, if any, of which portion, if any, of the evidence is to be provided by the claimant and which part, if any, VA will attempt to obtain on behalf of the claimant. In addition, VA must also request that the claimant provide any evidence in the claimant's possession that pertains to the claim. As explained below, the pertinent facts in this case are not in dispute and the law is dispositive. Consequently, there is no additional evidence that could be obtained to substantiate the claim, and no further action is required to comply with the VCAA or the implementing regulation. See Manning v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 534, 542 (2002); VAOPGCPREC 5-2004 (June 23, 2004). Analysis A claimant for VA pension benefits meets the necessary service requirements if there is sufficient evidence that he served in active military, naval, or air service under one of the following conditions: (i) for 90 days or more during a period of war; (ii) during a period of war, if he was discharged or released from such service for a disability adjudged service-connected without the presumptive provisions of law, or at the time of discharge, he had such a service- connected disability, shown by official service records, which in medical judgment would have justified a discharge for disability; (iii) for a period of 90 consecutive days or more, if such period began or ended during a period of war; or (iv) for an aggregate of 90 days or more in two or more separate periods of service, during more than one period of war. 38 U.S.C.A. § 1521(j); 38 C.F.R. § 3.3(a)(iii). The veteran has reported and the evidence confirms that he served on active duty from June 1978 to July 1981, a period subsequent to the Vietnam Era and prior to the Persian Gulf War. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.2. He had no wartime service. Accordingly, the veteran's claim for non-service-connected pension benefits must be denied as a matter of law. See Sabonis v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 426, 430 (1994). ORDER Entitlement to non-service-connected disability pension benefits is denied ____________________________________________ Shane A. Durkin Veterans Law Judge, Board of Veterans' Appeals Department of Veterans Affairs