Citation Nr: 21070795 Decision Date: 11/26/21 Archive Date: 11/26/21 DOCKET NO. 16-41 604 DATE: November 26, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss is granted. FINDING OF FACT Resolving all doubt in the Veteran's favor, the currently diagnosed bilateral hearing loss disability had its onset in service. CONCLUSION OF LAW Resolving all doubt in the Veteran's favor, the criteria to establish service connection for bilateral hearing loss disability are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309, 3.385 (2020). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from October 1964 to August 1968. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA or Board) on appeal from a November 2014 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). The Board remanded this appeal in November 2018, February 2020, and June 2021 for further development. Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss is granted. Service connection will be granted if the evidence demonstrates that a current disability resulted from an injury or disease incurred in or aggravated by active service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Service connection may also be granted for any injury or disease diagnosed after discharge, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disease or injury was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (d). Establishing service connection generally requires competent evidence of the following: (1) a current disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship, i.e., a nexus, between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the current disability. Holton v. Shinseki, 557 F.3d 1362, 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2009). For the purposes of applying the laws administered by VA, impaired hearing is considered a disability when the auditory threshold in any of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 Hertz is 40 decibels or greater, or when the auditory thresholds for at least three of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 Hertz are 26 decibels or greater, or when speech recognition scores using the Maryland CNC Test are less than 94 percent. 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. The Veteran contends that his bilateral hearing loss disability resulted from in-service noise exposure. The record confirms that the Veteran has a diagnosis of bilateral hearing loss for VA purposes. See June 2021 VA Examination Report. Additionally, the Veteran's military personnel records reflect that he had noise exposure during service due to his assignment as an air passenger specialist. See DD 214. The Board further notes that service treatment records documented a decline in hearing at 2000 Hertz in the left ear between enlistment and separation. See Separation Examination Reported dated August 9, 1968. The remaining issue is whether the Veteran's bilateral hearing loss disability is related to the conceded in-service noise exposure. In a December 2019 statement in support of his claim, the Veteran stated that he was a passenger service specialist, while stationed in the Republic of Vietnam, and was exposed to noise from jet engines during the arrivals and departures of the aircrafts. He explained that he was the first individual to board an arriving aircraft and the last to disembark aircrafts that were departing, while the engines continued to run for the majority of his time near the jets. The Veteran reported that ear protection was not made available to him during his service. He further noted that this assignment lasted for one full year and included 12 hour shifts and a six-day workweek. The Veteran has consistently reported noise exposure of this nature throughout the appeal periods, to include at the VA audiological examinations. As such, the Board finds these statements to be competent and credible as they are consistent with the nature and circumstances of his service. The Board acknowledges that the Veteran has attended multiple VA audiological examinations to evaluate his bilateral hearing loss. Indeed, the audiologists repeatedly opined that there was no significant permanent shift in hearing thresholds from entrance to separation and, as such, there was no objective evidence of permanent auditory damage on active duty from conceded noise exposure. However, these opinions are inadequate as the examiners did not adequately consider the Veteran's detailed lay statements regarding his conceded noise exposure, and instead based their conclusions solely on the absence of documented hearing loss upon separation. After resolving reasonable doubt in favor of the Veteran, the Board finds that hearing loss began in service due to the Veteran's conceded noise exposure and the pertinent service treatment records that show a shift in audiometric recordings from entrance to separation. (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE) Service connection for bilateral hearing loss is warranted and the appeal is granted. S. Sorathia Acting Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board Erin J. Trojanowski, 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.