Citation Nr: 18153329
Decision Date: 11/27/18	Archive Date: 11/27/18

DOCKET NO. 16-39 028
DATE:	November 27, 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 for entitlement to service connection for tinnitus have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.159, 3.303(b), 3.309.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran serve on active duty from January 2009 to May 2015.  He appeals the July 2015 rating decision denying service-connection for tinnitus. 
The Veteran asserts that his tinnitus had its genesis during his time in service.  A Veteran that can show a disability resulting from personal injury suffered or disease contracted, or for aggravation of preexisting injury suffered or disease contracted in the line of duty in active service is entitled to VA disability compensation.  38 U.S.C. § 1110.
To establish entitlement to VA disability compensation, a veteran must show: (1) a present disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of an injury or disease; and, (3) a causal link between the present disability and the injury or disease incurred or aggravated in-service (“nexus” requirement).  Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004).  
Under 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b), the nexus requirement is relaxed for claims for chronic diseases enumerated in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a).  Certain chronic diseases will be presumed related to service if continuity of the same symptomatology has existed since service, with no intervening cause.  Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1339 (Fed. Cir. 2012).  Tinnitus is a chronic disease afforded the relaxed standard where there is evidence of acoustic trauma.  Fountain v. McDonald, 27 Vet. App. 258, 260 (2015).    
A veteran is competent to testify to that which is actually observed, and is within the realm of personal knowledge.  Competent lay testimony is confined to the features or symptoms of an injury or illness.  See Layno v. Brown, 6 Vat. App. 465 (1994). 
A veteran need only demonstrate that there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence to establish entitlement to VA disability compensation.  Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 54 (1990).   
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Tinnitus is a disorder uniquely discernable by the senses.  In the instant case, the Veteran and his representative report that the Veteran’s tinnitus began in service and continued thereafter up to the present day.  See, e.g., September 2016 Representative Statement.  The Board finds the Veteran’s statements in this regard highly probative and credible.  Because the Veteran is credible in his report that his tinnitus began in service and continued thereafter, and because tinnitus is capable of lay observation, service connection for the condition is warranted.
 
DONNIE R. HACHEY
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	D.J. Ballinger, Law Clerk