Citation Nr: 18154355
Decision Date: 11/29/18	Archive Date: 11/29/18

DOCKET NO. 15-12 124A
DATE:	November 29, 2018
ORDER
Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
The evidence demonstrates that tinnitus onset during service.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for entitlement to service connection for tinnitus have been met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.309.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty from March 1972 to March 1976.
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) from a November 2011 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).
The Board notes that prior to a hearing scheduled in 2018 for the Veteran, his representative requested that the hearing be moved to a different location as the Veteran had moved.  As this decision represents a full grant of the issue on appeal, the Board finds no prejudice in proceeding with adjudication of the claim without scheduling a hearing.
VA has established certain rules and presumptions for chronic diseases, such as organic diseases of the nervous system like tinnitus.  See 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303(b), 3.307, 3.309(a); Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2013).  With chronic diseases shown as such in service so as to permit a finding of service connection, subsequent manifestations of the same chronic disease at any later date, however remote, are service connected, unless attributable to intercurrent causes.  38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b).  
When the Veteran underwent his September 2011 VA examination, he reported that the onset of tinnitus occurred while working aboard a Naval ship where he was near loud turbines.  Since that time, the Veteran has consistently and credibly stated that his tinnitus had onset in service and has continued since.  A lay person is competent to state whether he has, or has had, tinnitus.  See Charles v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 370, 374 (2002).  Despite the medical opinion that was inconclusive if the Veteran’s tinnitus began in service, the Veteran has credibly reported that he first experienced tinnitus in service and that it has continued since then.  
(Continued on the next page)





Given the above, the Board finds that the evidence demonstrates that tinnitus was incurred during service and service connection for tinnitus is granted.  See C.F.R. § 3.303(b).
 
Nathan Kroes
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	Megan Shuster, Law Clerk