Citation Nr: 18144714 Decision Date: 10/25/18 Archive Date: 10/25/18 DOCKET NO. 12-02 944 DATE: October 25, 2018 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty from December 1966 to August 1968. This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal of a June 2010 rating decision of a Regional Office (RO) of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Entitlement to service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is remanded. A remand by the Board confers on a Veteran, as a matter of law, a right to compliance with the remand instructions, and imposes upon VA a concomitant duty to ensure compliance with the terms of the remand. If the Board proceeds with final disposition of an appeal, and the remand orders have not been complied with, the Board itself errs in failing to ensure compliance. Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998). This claim has a lengthy procedural history. In April 2010, the Veteran filed a claim asserting he suffers from PTSD. He reported, as a stressor, an incident which occurred as he performed his duties as a truckdriver, with the 91st Engineer Company in Thailand sometime between August 1967 to August 1968. The Veteran claims his Sergeant was trapped between two trucks in a convoy and impaled on a hitch. His injuries were severe and the Veteran attempted to assist him. The Veteran believed, but was not certain, the Sergeant died from his wounds. In developing the claim, the RO asked the Veteran to provide additional information about the stressor, including a 60-day timeframe in which the events occurred. The Veteran did not provide the requested timeframe and the RO determined the information provided was insufficient to request corroborating information from the Joint Services Records Research Center (JSRRC). VA issued a formal finding that the information provided by the Veteran was insufficient to verify. The claim was denied. The Veteran appealed and in November 2013, the Board, finding VA had met its duty to assist, denied the claim. The Veteran appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court). In an October 2015 Panel Decision, the Court vacated the Board’s decision. The Court determined the duty to assist required VA attempt to obtain corroborating information about the reported stressor from JSRRC. The Court discussed VA procedures which limited JSRRC searches to 60-day intervals, but observed the Veteran’s report contained sufficient details to warrant multiple requests for separate searches of 60-day intervals covering the 13 months the Veteran was assigned to the 91st Engineer Company in Thailand. The Court remanded and directed “VA to submit to the JSRRC multiple requests for records of the stressor event, each encompassing a different 60-day range, to cover the appellant's relevant service period from August 1967 to August 1968 as a truck driver with the 91st Engineer Company.” In accordance with these instructions, the Board remanded the claim in April 2016 and directed the RO to attempt to obtain corroboration of the claimed stressor. The Board directed multiple requests for review of the 91st Engineer Company records, broken into 60-day periods. Although the Board did not specifically direct these multiple requests be submitted to the JRSSC, in light of the prior Court remand, it is clear the requests should have been so directed. Unfortunately, on remand the RO obtained military personnel records and service treatment records for the Veteran but failed to obtain information, from JRSSC or any other entity, about events related to a traffic incident in the 91st Engineer Company unit records. The claim was returned to the Board. Noting the RO’s failure to comply with the April 2016 remand directives and citing Stegall, a second Board remand was issued in May 2017. On remand, the RO requested information from the Defense Personnel Records Information Retrieval System (DPRIS) about possible motor vehicle accidents occurring in the 91st Engineer Company from August 1967 to August 1968. However, the DPRIS response did not provide the requested information and instead stated that the Veteran’s unit’s presence in Vietnam could not be confirmed, which is irrelevant to the salient inquiry in this case. The RO also directed a search by the Personnel Information Retrieval System (PIES) for the morning reports of the 91st Engineer Company from December 1, 1967 to February 1, 1968 for any remarks regarding the death of a Sergeant. PIES responded that no information was found in this time period. No other attempts to obtain corroborating information, in different time frames or from other sources, are included in the record. Again, there has not been substantial compliance with the Board’s remand directives from April 2016 or May 2017. The claim must be remanded once more to assist the Veteran by attempting to obtain corroborating evidence supporting his claimed stressor. See Stegall, supra The matter is REMANDED for the following action: 1. Submit to the JSRRC multiple requests for unit records of the stressor event, each encompassing a different 60-day range, to cover the Veteran’s relevant service period from August 1967 to August 1968 as a truck driver with the 91st Engineer Company. In addition, request corroborating evidence from any other entity where such information might be obtained. Following established protocols, ensure information is requested and records are searched for the entire period from August 1, 1967 through August 31, 1968 for any reports of motor vehicle incidents with injury to a Sergeant or the death of a Sergeant due to such an incident. Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD Jeanne Celtnieks, Associate Counsel