Citation Nr: 21072928 Decision Date: 12/06/21 Archive Date: 12/06/21 DOCKET NO. 18-52 753 DATE: December 6, 2021 ORDER Service connection for prostate cancer is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and the evidence shows that he had active service near the perimeter of Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) during the Vietnam era. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for prostate cancer are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309 (2021). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from May 1972 to August 1992. This matter is before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a May 2017 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In December 2021, a hearing was held before the undersigned. Service Connection for Prostate Cancer The Veteran asserts that he has prostate cancer as a result of exposure to herbicide agents during his active service in Thailand. The Board finds that service connection is warranted. Service connection may be granted for disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by active service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. The three-element test for service connection requires evidence of: (1) a current disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the current disability and the in-service disease or injury. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1166-67 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Veterans who, during active military, naval, or air service, served in the Republic of Vietnam from February 28, 1961 to May 7, 1975, shall be presumed to have been exposed to an herbicide agent, including Agent Orange, unless there is affirmative evidence to establish that the Veteran was not exposed to any such agent during that service. 38 C.F.R.§ 3.307(a). VA provides special consideration of herbicide agent exposure on a factual basis for veterans whose duties placed them on or near the perimeters of Royal Thai Air Force bases. If a veteran served in the U.S. Air Force in Thailand during the Vietnam era at U-Tapao, Ubon, Nakhon Phanom, Udorn, Takhli, Korat, or Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base as an Air Force security policeman, security patrol dog handler, member of a security police squadron, or otherwise served near the air base perimeter, as shown by daily work duties, performance evaluations, or other credible evidence, herbicide agent exposure should be conceded on a facts-found or direct basis. Additionally, if a veteran was exposed to an herbicide agent during active military, naval, or air service, certain diseases shall be service-connected if the requirements of § 3.307(a)(6) are met, even though there is no record of such disease during service, provided that the rebuttable presumption provisions of 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(d) are also satisfied. 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e). Prostate cancer is one of the diseases listed at § 3.309(e) as a disease associated with exposure to herbicide agents. The evidence of record supports a finding that the Veteran has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The Veteran's VA treatment records and a September 2016 VA Pathology Report indicate that the Veteran was diagnosed with prostate cancer. As prostate cancer is specifically listed as a disease entitled to presumptive service connection, the Board must determine whether the Veteran was exposed to herbicide agents in Thailand. The Veteran's service personnel records reflect that he was stationed at Takhli RTAFB from January 1973 to January 1974. His Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) was a Weapons Mechanic. The personnel records note that his duties included being responsible for the maintenance, installation and removal of conventional munitions and guided aircraft missile and rockets, and the installation and removal of pylons, adapters, launchers, and bomb dispensers. The Veteran served as a number four man on a weapons load crew. In a December 2016 statement, the Veteran stated that his duties included the assembly, fusing, and loading, of various munitions on aircraft on the flight line and end of runway duties to both arm and safe the aircrafts' weapons. He stated that both the flight line and the end of runway were located near the base perimeter. He stated that he was also assigned on a rotational basis to the weapons storage area, "bomb dump," which was located near the air base perimeter. In December 2016, the Veteran submitted photographs of himself loading bombs on the flight line at Takhli RTAFB in 1973, and a photograph and map of the base. The Veteran also submitted a copy of the Contemporary Historical Examination of Current Operations (CHECO) Report of Base Defense in Thailand which stated that herbicide agents were used on the perimeter of Thai Air Force bases. In a statement received in June 2017, the Veteran stated that his daily duties placed him within the perimeter of the base. The Veteran noted that the photographs of him loading bombs on the flight line at Takhli RTAFB show him standing in the dead grass waiting to arm/de-arm aircraft at the end of the runway, within sight of the base perimeter and security force bunkers. In March 2021 statements, fellow servicemembers, J.H. and R.R., who served with the Veteran at Takhli RTAFB, stated that their duties included arming and making safe aircraft on the flight line and the end of the runway. J.H. and R.R. stated that both the flight line and end of the runway were located near the base perimeter and the foliage was kept low. They also stated that they were assigned on a rotation basis to the weapons storage area, the "bomb dump," which was near the base perimeter. The Veteran, J.H., and R.R. are competent to report the circumstances of their service at the Takhli RTAFB. The Board finds the Veteran's, J.H.'s, and R.R.'s statements that the Veteran served on the flight line and runway near the base perimeter to be credible as they are consistent with the places and circumstances of his service as a Weapons Mechanic at the Takhli RTAFB. Therefore, the Board finds that the statements are highly probative. Based on the Veteran's MOS as a Weapons Mechanic, his service personnel records describing his duties, and the probative supporting photographs and lay statements, the Board finds that that the evidence is at least in equipoise as to whether the Veteran's duties as a Weapons Mechanic took him near the perimeter of Takhli RTAFB. The Board concludes on a facts found basis that the Veteran's duties would have exposed him to herbicide agents. Resolving the benefit of the doubt in the Veteran's favor, the Veteran's exposure to herbicide agents in Thailand is conceded. Therefore, the Board finds that service connection for prostate cancer under the provisions of 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e) is warranted. M. SORISIO Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board K. Marenna, 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.