Citation Nr: 18145659
Decision Date: 10/30/18	Archive Date: 10/29/18

DOCKET NO. 16-50 050
DATE:	October 30, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from January 1981 to January 1984, and December 1990 to May 1991.  The Veteran also had service from 1984 until 1985 of an unverified nature for which he received and uncharacterized discharge. 
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a July 2013 rating decision issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  
The Board has recharacterized the issue as listed above to best reflect the broad scope of the claim given the current psychiatric diagnoses of record.  See Clemons v. Shinseki, 23 Vet. App. 1 (2009).
1. Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression is remanded.
The Veteran’s claim of entitlement to service connection for PTSD was denied in part as after conducting a records search and considering evidence submitted by the Veteran, it could not be substantiated that the Veteran had active service in the Southwest Asia theater during the Gulf War.  However, the RO did not acknowledge a notation on the Veteran’s DD-214 Form stating that the Veteran was ordered to active duty in support of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm under 10 U.S.C. § 672. This DD 214 also reflects 5 months and 3 days of foreign service during this period.  While extensive personnel records have been obtained, the Form 2-1 does not cover the Veteran’s last period of service. On remand another search to obtain documents to clarify the Veteran’s service should be undertaken.
Additionally, the Veteran was afforded a VA examination in July 2013, but the examiner did not opine as to the etiology of any of the Veteran’s psychiatric diagnoses.  
The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
1. Obtain any additional mental health treatment records, and associate those records with the claims file.
2. Undertake all appropriate development to obtain the Veteran’s Reserve service treatment and personnel records, to include any Form 2-1 and performance evaluations for the Veteran’s service from December 1990 until May 1991 and associate them with the claims file. 
If the requested records are not available, or the search for such records yields negative responses, then that must be clearly documented in the claims file.  If the RO concludes that it is reasonably certain that these records do not exist or further efforts to obtain them would be futile, then it must notify the Veteran accordingly.
3. Schedule the Veteran for an examination by an appropriate clinician to determine the nature and etiology of any acquired psychiatric disorder.  The examiner must opine whether it is at least as likely as not (50 percent probability or better) that any psychiatric disorder had its onset in service or is related to an in-service injury, event, or disease.
 
H. SEESEL
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	N. Miller, Associate Counsel