Citation Nr: 18148367
Decision Date: 11/07/18	Archive Date: 11/07/18

DOCKET NO. 15-17 052
DATE:	November 7, 2018
ORDER
Entitlement to non-service-connected disability pension is denied.
FINDING OF FACT
The Veteran’s service was not during a period of war.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for basic eligibility requirements for non-service-connected disability pension benefits are not met.  38 U.S.C. § 1521; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.3, 3.6.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran had honorable active military service from July 1980 to July 1983.  
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a November 2013 administrative decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).

Entitlement to non-service-connected disability pension 
The Veteran contends that he is entitled to non-service-connected disability pension due to disabilities involving the bilateral knees and lower back.
VA non-service-connected pension benefits are payable to a veteran who is permanently and totally disabled from non-service-connected disability or disabilities, which is not the result of willful misconduct, but only where the veteran has the requisite active wartime service.  38 U.S.C. § 1521(a); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.3, 3.314(b).  A veteran meets the service requirements if he served in active military, naval, or air service: (1) for 90 days or more during a period of war; (2) during a period of war and was discharged or released from service for a service-connected disability; (3) for a period of 90 consecutive days or more and such period began or ended during a period of war; or (4) for an aggregate of 90 days or more in two or more separate periods of service during more than one period of war.  38 U.S.C. § 1521(j); 38 C.F.R. § 3.3(a)(3).
In the present case, the Veteran served from July 1980 to July 1983.  No days during that period have been designated by Congress as a period of war.  Rather, this period falls between the Vietnam era, which ended May 7, 1975, and the Persian Gulf War, which stated August 2, 1990.  38 C.F.R. § 3.2.  As the Veteran’s service did not fall within a period of war, basic eligibility for non-service-connected disability pension benefits is not met.
In summary, based on the available evidence regarding the Veteran’s service, the provisions of 38 C.F.R. § 3.3 are dispositive in this matter.  As the Veteran did not 
 
have the type of qualifying service required to confer eligibility for VA disability pension benefits, his claim must be denied because of the absence of legal merit or the lack of entitlement under the law.  Sabonis v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 426 (1994).

 
M. C. GRAHAM
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	S.M. Kreitlow