Citation Nr: 21015386 Decision Date: 03/17/21 Archive Date: 03/17/21 DOCKET NO. 15-33 465 DATE: March 17, 2021 ORDER Service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability is denied. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran’s acquired psychiatric disability did not have its onset in and is not otherwise related to service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability are not met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Air Force from January 1963 to November 1965. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a June 2012 rating decision from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). The Veteran presented sworn testimony at a hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) in October 2018. The Board remanded this claim for additional development in July 2020. As noted in the previous Board decision, the Veteran’s claim of service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been recharacterized to include all psychiatric disorders reasonably raised by the record. Clemons v. Shinseki, 23Vet. App.1(2009) Service Connection The Veteran seeks service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability. He contends that he has posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to a military sexual trauma incident in service. Service connection may be granted for a disability resulting in a disease or injury that is incurred in or aggravated by active military service. 38 U.S.C. §1110; 38 U.S.C. §3.303. To establish service connection for the claimed disorder, the following criteria must be met: (1) evidence of a current disability; (2) evidence of an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) evidence of a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and current disability. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.303; see also Davidson v. Shinseki, 581 F.3d 1313, 1316 (Fed. Cir. 2009); Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1166-67 (Fed. Cir. 2004); Hickson v. West, 12 Vet. App. 247, 253 (1999). The Board first finds that service connection for PTSD is not warranted. Although, the Veteran’s medical history highlights, by medical history, a PTSD diagnosis, the medical evidence of record does not support that he has a confirmed PTSD diagnosis. The August 2015 and January 2021 VA examinations both indicating that the Veteran does not meet the diagnostic criteria for a PTSD diagnosis. As a result, service connection for PTSD must be denied. Moreover, the January 2021 VA examiner opined that the Veteran persistent depressive disorder with pure dysthymic syndrome moderate with anxious distress (“psychiatric disability”). The Veteran contends that his psychiatric disability is due to military sexual trauma. In support of this contention, the Veteran highlights conduct and performance issues in service around September 1965. The VA examiner has opined that the Veteran’s conduct and performance decline around September 1965 is not a sufficient medical marker here for in-service onset of a disability. In support of this conclusion, the VA examiner noted that the Veteran had conduct and performance issues in service for more than a year prior to September 1965. Military personnel records support the VA examiner’s conclusions. These records show that the Veteran was repeatedly counseled for performance issues and conduct as early as 1963 and 1964. The January 2021 VA examiner ultimately concluded that the Veteran’s psychiatric disability did not have its onset in service and was not related to an in-service military sexual trauma. Instead, based on symptom onset in the late 1980s, the VA examiner concluded that the Veteran’s psychiatric disability is related to employment and marital stressors. The evidence does not show that the Veteran’s acquired psychiatric disability had its onset in service or shortly after service and he did not display continuity of symptomatology. As the evidence shows and the VA examinations support the Veteran’s acquired psychiatric disability is not related to service. As a result, service connection must be denied. STEVEN D. REISS Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board Ijitimehin, Kemi D. 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.