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