Citation Nr: 18147652 Decision Date: 11/05/18 Archive Date: 11/05/18 DOCKET NO. 16-24 914A DATE: November 5, 2018 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The claimant is the surviving spouse of a Veteran who served on active duty from October 1966 to April 1970. The Veteran passed away in September 2012. This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a November 2015 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). Service connection for the cause of the Veteran’s death The Veteran’s death certificate documents that his immediate cause of death in September 2012 was due to probable acute myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease. The claimant contends that the Veteran’s acute myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease were caused by his exposure to herbicide agents and/or radiation in service. Further development is necessary to establish either theory. The claimant’s first theory relates to the Veteran’s alleged exposure to herbicide agents. The Veteran’s military personnel records establish that the Veteran served in the Vietnam War era but did not serve in the country of Vietnam. Therefore, his service did not qualify for the presumption of exposure to herbicide agents based on service in Vietnam. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309. The claimant contends that the Veteran had been exposed to herbicide agents from two sources: (1) his service in Korea near the DMZ, and (2) from equipment he worked on that had been flown in from Vietnam. The Board notes that acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease are diseases associated with exposure to certain herbicide agents under 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e). However, the claimant must establish, either by presumption or by factual development, that the Veteran was exposed to an herbicide agent in order to establish service connection under 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307. Military personnel records reflect that the Veteran’s military occupational specialty was as a radio relay equipment repairman and that he served in Korea beginning in November 1969 until February 1970, within the presumptive period for exposure along the DMZ. 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iv). The record contains lay statements in support of the Veteran’s claim that have been submitted by friends of the Veteran, and these statements contend that the Veteran was ordered to visit remote troop sites near the DMZ to do on-site maintenance on equipment. However, these statements do not identify the sites with the particularity necessary to establish exposure to herbicide agents on a presumptive basis under 38 C.F.R. § 3.307. Further development is necessary because the evidence of record does not sufficiently establish which units he was attached to and where those units mobilized or were deployed to during his service in Korea. The claimant’s second theory relates to the Veteran’s work on AN/TRC-66A Tropospheric Scatter and AN/MCC-12 Multiplex equipment. The claimant alleges that this equipment exposed the Veteran to unsafe levels of radiation that either contributed to or caused his death. The Veteran’s cause of death (listed as probable acute myocardial infarction due to coronary artery disease) is not a disease specific to radiation-exposed veterans under 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(d) or a radiogenic disease under 38 C.F.R. § 3.311. Notwithstanding these regulations, the claimant can directly connect the Veteran’s cause of death to exposure to radiation on a facts-found basis. To succeed on this theory, the claimant must establish that the Veteran’s work on this equipment contributed to or caused the Veteran’s death. Specifically, this would entail showing that: (1) the equipment exposed the Veteran to unsafe doses of radiation, and (2) this exposure contributed to or caused the Veteran’s acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease. Additional development is necessary to obtain a dose estimate to fully consider the claimant’s contention as to whether the Veteran’s in-service duties exposed him to radiation. The matter is REMANDED for the following action: 1. Attempt to verify, including with the U.S. Army Joint Services Records Research Center (JSRRC), the claim relating to herbicide agent exposure along the DMZ in Korea. The Veteran’s specific unit information and dates of service with respect to each duty station should be provided with the request to the JSRRC, to include information regarding his service at Osan Air Base and throughout Korea. 2. Forward all available records concerning the Veteran’s potential exposure to radiation to VA’s Under Secretary for Health, who will be responsible for preparation of a dose estimate, to the extent feasible, based on available methodologies, pursuant to 38 C.F.R. § 3.311(a)(2)(iii). In preparing a dose estimate, VA’s Under Secretary for Health should be instructed to consider the Veteran’s work on AN/TRC-66A Tropospheric Scatter and AN/MCC-12 Multiplex equipment as a radio relay equipment repairman. 3. Undertake any additional development deemed necessary as a result of the development requested above. M. SORISIO Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD M. H. White, Associate Counsel