Citation Nr: 21002074 Decision Date: 01/12/21 Archive Date: 01/12/21 DOCKET NO. 18-45 509 DATE: January 12, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran has experienced tinnitus since his separation from service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to service connection for tinnitus have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1112, 1113, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran has verified active duty as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps from October 1964 to October 1967, to include service in the Republic of Vietnam. Prior to becoming an Officer, the Veteran was enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. This matter comes before the Board of Veteran’s Appeals (Board) on appeal from an April 2017 decision by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regional office. The Veteran and his wife testified before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge in January 2021. Generally, to establish service connection, a claimant must show: (1) a present disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service, the so-called “nexus” requirement. See 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303; see also Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004). VA has established certain rules and presumptions for chronic diseases, such as 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). If chronicity in service is not established, a showing of continuity of symptoms after discharge may support the claim. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b). In addition, for veterans who have served 90 days or more of active service during a war period or after December 31, 1946, chronic diseases are presumed to have been incurred in service if they manifested to a compensable degree within one year of separation from service. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307(a)(3), 3.309(a). Tinnitus is a noise in the ears, such as ringing, buzzing, roaring, or clicking. YT v. Brown, 9 Vet. App. 195, 196 (1996). Tinnitus is the type of disability that is capable of lay observation. Charles v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 370, 374 (2002). In this case, while there is a negative March 2017 VA nexus opinion which indicates that the Veteran first began to notice tinnitus two years prior, during the January 2021 hearing his wife testified that he began complaining of a buzzing in the ears within the first month after his return from serving in the Republic of Vietnam. The Board has no reason to doubt her reports of the Veteran’s complaints about tinnitus during service or the Veteran’s reports of experiencing tinnitus presently and finds these statements credible. As tinnitus, a chronic disease, was present during service and is present currently, and is not clearly attributable to an intercurrent cause, service connection is granted. See 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303(b), 3.309(a); see also Fountain v. McDonald, 27 Vet. App. 258, 271 (2015); Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2013). Nathan Kroes Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board M. D. Bruce, 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.