Citation Nr: 18140711 Decision Date: 10/05/18 Archive Date: 10/05/18 DOCKET NO. 11-27 330 DATE: ORDER Service connection for a cervical spine disability is granted. FINDING OF FACT Cervical spine degenerative joint disease had its onset in service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for establishing entitlement to service connection for cervical spine degenerative joint disease has been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1154(a), 5107(b) (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309 (2017). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran had active military service in the US Air Force from July 1969 to December 1972. The Veteran presented sworn testimony at a hearing before the undersigned in May 2018. Establishing service connection generally requires medical or, in certain circumstances, lay evidence of (1) a current disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the present disability. Davidson v. Shinseki, 581 F.3d 1313 (Fed.Cir.2009); Hickson v. West, 12 Vet. App. 247, 253 (1999); Caluza v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 498, 506 (1995), aff’d per curiam, 78 F. 3d 604 (Fed. Cir. 1996) (table). Where a veteran served on active duty for at least 90 days during a period of war or after December 31, 1946, and manifests certain chronic diseases, such as arthritis, to a degree of 10 percent within one year from the date of termination of such service, such disease shall be presumed to have been incurred or aggravated in service, even though there is no evidence of such disease during the period of service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1112; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309. However, the presumption is inapplicable in this case because the most probative evidence of record does not show that the Veteran was diagnosed with arthritis to a degree of 10 percent within one year from the date of termination of service. The Veteran testified at his May 2018 travel board hearing that he injured his cervical spine in the same basketball accident in which he dislocated his shoulder and ulnar nerve, and has had issues with his neck ever since the accident. See Hearing transcript, pp. 4-11. The Board observes that the accident is documented in the Veteran’s service treatment records, specifically a November 1972 clinician’s report that the Veteran underwent surgical repair of recurrent dislocation of left shoulder and post anterior transfer of the left ulnar nerve with partial left ulnar neuropathy. The Veteran’s wife has provided a written statement that she was married to the Veteran at the time of the accident and corroborated that the Veteran was troubled by severe neck pain along with problems with his left shoulder and headaches until he was discharged and these problems continued to worsen since that time. See May 2018 Statement in Support of Claim. The evidence of record is consistent with the Veteran’s contentions. First, the Veteran has a current disability, including VA clinicians’ diagnoses of degenerative arthritic changes of the cervical spine in January 2007, and degenerative joint disease of the cervical spine in August 2006. Second, the Veteran has provided competent and credible testimony that his cervical spine was injured in service and has continued to be symptomatic since service. A layperson is competent to report on the onset and continuity of his current symptomatology. See Layno v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 465, 470 (1994) (a Veteran is competent to report on all things of which he has personal knowledge derived from his own senses); 38 C.F.R. § 3.159 (a)(2). Here, the Veteran is competent to sense pain in his cervical spine. Moreover, that pain is consistent with the diagnoses from VA clinicians. The Board further finds that the Veteran’s testimony is credible, based on the corroborate statements from his wife, the documentation of the accident in his service treatment records, and the absence of any post-service cervical spine injury in the record. Based on the above, the Board finds that the evidence is at least in equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s cervical spine degenerative joint disease is related to service. Thus, resolving all reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the Board finds that service connection is warranted for his cervical spine degenerative joint disease. 38 U.S.C. § 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.102. STEVEN D. REISS Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD K. Anderson