Citation Nr: 18155301
Decision Date: 12/04/18	Archive Date: 12/03/18

DOCKET NO. 14-40 295A
DATE:	December 4, 2018
ORDER
Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
The Veteran was diagnosed with tinnitus in service and continues to experience symptoms.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for service connection for tinnitus are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 1112, 1113, 1131, 1137; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.307, 3.309.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty for training while serving in the Kansas Army National Guard from January to September 1987, and on active duty in the United States Army from August 1988 to September 2012, to include service in Iraq in 2008.  The Board thanks the Veteran for his service.  
This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a July 2013 rating decision by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).
The Veteran’s claim for entitlement to service connection for tinnitus was previously denied in July 2009 because he was still an active duty service member.  Because the Veteran retired from the Army in 2012, the Board finds the matter was appropriately before the VA in the instant appeal.  
1. Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus
The Veteran reported his tinnitus symptoms to the VA in service, and he was diagnosed with tinnitus during a VA examination while in service.
The Board concludes that the Veteran has a current diagnosis of bilateral tinnitus that began during active service.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107(b); Holton v. Shinseki, 557 F.3d 1363, 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2009); 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a).
Service connection may be awarded for certain chronic diseases, to include tinnitus (as an organic disease of the nervous system), listed in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a), that manifest in service or to a degree of 10 percent within one year of service separation.  Id. §§ 3.303(b), 3.307.
Lay evidence can be competent and sufficient to establish a diagnosis of a condition when (1) a layperson is competent to identify the medical condition, (2) the layperson reports a contemporaneous medical diagnosis, or (3) lay testimony describing symptoms at the time supports a later diagnosis by a medical professional. In fact, competent medical evidence is not necessarily required when the determinative issue involves medical etiology or a medical diagnosis. Jandreau v. Nicholson, 492 F.3d 1372 (Fed. Cir. 2007); Buchanan v. Nicholson, 451 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2006).
The Veteran initially filed for service connection for tinnitus in January 2009, while still on active duty in the Army.  On his application for compensation, he indicated that symptoms began in 2002.  In an April 2009 VA examination, the Veteran reported that he began experiencing symptoms at some earlier time in service, but that they had becoming more pronounced “this past year (2009).”  The April 2009 examiner diagnosed the Veteran with tinnitus based on his described symptoms, but did not provider an opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran’s condition.  A June 2013 VA examination during the current appeal also diagnosed tinnitus.
Where, as here, the Veteran has an in-service diagnosis of a chronic disease subject to presumptive service connection, and he has a subsequent manifestation of that same disease at a later date, that chronic disease shall be service connected unless clearly attributable to intercurrent causes. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b). Because the Board finds no intercurrent causes to which the Veteran's current diagnosis of tinnitus is clearly attributable, service connection for tinnitus is granted. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303. 
In light of the foregoing, the Board finds that the requirements for service connection have been met.
 
M. C. GRAHAM
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	C. Anderson, Associate Counsel