Citation Nr: 20005378
Decision Date: 01/23/20	Archive Date: 01/22/20

DOCKET NO. 17-12 174
DATE: January 23, 2020

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer, to include as due to exposure to herbicides is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from June 1964 to December 1967.

Entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer, to include as due to exposure to herbicides is remanded.

The Veteran contends that his prostate cancer condition is causally related to his service.

Additional development is necessary before the Board can adjudicate the claim. The Veteran submitted a statement in May 2016,that he his plane to Tokyo, Japan stopped in Vietnam on December 19, 1967 in Vietnam. During a November 2019 Board hearing, he testified that during his return to the U.S. from Thailand, the C-130 airplane he was flying on stopped to refuel in Saigon, Vietnam at which time the Veteran was ordered off the plane. The Veteran has provided specific details pertaining to that flight, to include the date and time the flight left Thailand with a final destination in Tokyo, Japan. On remand, the Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) should request research from all appropriate sources pertaining to that flight.

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Contact the appropriate agency to obtain any flight plans or flight logs, or other historical information from Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base to Tokyo, Japan, on or around December 7, 1967 and associate this information with the record. If no additional information is available, the Veteran should be notified with a notation placed into the file. 

 

M.E. Larkin

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	M. G. Perkins, Associate Counsel

The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential, and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.