Citation Nr: 18144509
Decision Date: 10/24/18	Archive Date: 10/24/18

DOCKET NO. 16-33 483
DATE:	October 24, 2018
ORDER
Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
The Veteran’s tinnitus began in service and has continued to the present.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria to establish service connection for tinnitus have been met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1154(b), 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.159, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309 (2017). 
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty in the Army from September 1966 to May 1969 to include combat service in Vietnam.  He is a recipient of the Purple Heart.
A Veteran is entitled to VA disability compensation if there is a disability resulting from personal injury suffered or disease contracted in the line of duty in active service, or for aggravation of a preexisting injury suffered or disease contracted in the line of duty in active service.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131.
Generally, to establish a right to compensation for a present disability, a Veteran must show: (1) a present disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service, the so-called “nexus” requirement.  Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
Under 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b), claims for chronic diseases enumerated in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a) benefit from a relaxed evidentiary standard.  See Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1339 (Fed. Cir. 2013).  Tinnitus has been interpreted as such a disease.  To show a chronic disease in service, the record must contain a combination of manifestations sufficient to identify the disease entity, and sufficient observation to establish chronicity at the time.  If chronicity in service is not established, a showing of continuity of symptoms after discharge is required to support the claim. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b); Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1339 (Fed. Cir. 2013).





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The Veteran has credibly indicated that his tinnitus began in service and has continued to the present time.  See, e.g., September 2014 report of Dr. S.C. (wherein the Veteran placed onset of tinnitus 45 years prior while in service).  Because tinnitus is a condition capable of lay observation, and because the Veteran has credibly indicated that his tinnitus had its onset in service and has continued to the present, service connection for tinnitus is warranted.  
 
DONNIE R. HACHEY
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	A. Zheng, Associate Counsel