Citation Nr: 18140174
Decision Date: 10/02/18	Archive Date: 10/02/18

DOCKET NO. 16-20 627
DATE:	October 2, 2018
ORDER
New and material evidence has been received to reopen the claim of entitlement to service connection for diabetes mellitus, type II (diabetes).  
REMANDED
Entitlement to service connection for diabetes, to include as due to herbicide agent exposure, is remanded.

FINDINGS OF FACT
1. In a September 2008 rating decision, the RO denied the Veteran’s claim of entitlement to service connection for diabetes.  The Veteran did not appeal that decision, and new and material evidence was not received within one year of its issuance.
2. Evidence received more than one year since the September 2008 rating decision, to include private treatment records, photographs, and the Veteran’s July 2015 and January 2017 written statements indicating that he landed in the Republic of Vietnam during his service at a Royal Thai Air Force Base, is neither cumulative nor redundant of evidence previously of record, and raises a reasonable possibility of substantiating the Veteran’s claim of service connection for diabetes.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. The September 2008 rating decision that denied the claim of entitlement to service connection diabetes is final.  38 U.S.C. §§ 5108, 7105(c); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.156, 20.302, 20.1103.
2. New and material evidence has been received to reopen the claim of entitlement to service connection for diabetes.  38 U.S.C. § 5108; 38 C.F.R. § 3.156.
REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from June 1966 to May 1970.
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a June 2015 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).
1. Entitlement to service connection for diabetes, to include as due to herbicide exposure is remanded.
The Veteran asserts that his diabetes is presumptively due to herbicide agent exposure during his service at the Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base assigned to Task Force Alpha from May 1969 to May 1970.  Specifically, he states that he was exposed to herbicide agents as he performed his duties near the perimeter of the base and/or during his monthly flights to the Republic of Vietnam with his commanding officer to obtain tax-free status, which he maintains was a common practice.  See July 2015 notice of disagreement (NOD); January 2017 written statement.  Further, he reports that his military pay records would show that he received tax free exemption during his time in Thailand.  Accordingly, attempts should be made to locate flight manifests, military pay records, or any other documentation to verify the Veteran’s report that he traveled to Vietnam from May 1969 to May 1970.  Updated VA and private treatment records should also be secured. 
The matter is REMANDED for the following actions:
1. Obtain any outstanding VA treatment records. 
2. With any necessary assistance from the Veteran, obtain all outstanding private treatment records.  If any records are unavailable, notify the Veteran pursuant to 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(e).
3. Contact the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) or other appropriate records repository to request the Veteran’s military pay records from May 1969 to May 1970.  If any records are unavailable, notify the Veteran pursuant to 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(e).
4. Obtain any flight logs and any other available documentation to verify whether the Veteran was aboard any flights to Vietnam between May 1969 to May 1970.  Please note that the requirement of a 60-day window for research purposes violates the duty to assist.  See Gagne v. McDonald, 27 Vet. App. 397 (2015).  
 
S. BUSH
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	K. Forde, Counsel