Citation Nr: 21025814 Decision Date: 04/29/21 Archive Date: 04/29/21 DOCKET NO. 18-11 122 DATE: April 29, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus is granted. FINDING OF FACT The evidence shows the Veteran’s current tinnitus began during or within one year of separation from service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for tinnitus are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from May 1988 to May 1994, March 2011 to September 2011, and August 2012 to May 2013. This matter is before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a May 2015 rating decision by a Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In April 2021, a virtual hearing was held before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. This decision is being made under the “one-touch” program. A transcript of the hearing will be associated with the claims file at a later time. Service Connection 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). Certain chronic diseases, including tinnitus, will be presumed related to service, absent an intercurrent cause, if they were shown as chronic in service; or, if they manifested to a compensable degree within a presumptive period following separation from service; or, if they were noted in service (or within an applicable presumptive period) with continuity of symptomatology since service that is attributable to the chronic disease. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1112, 1113, 1137; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.307, 3.309. Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2013); Fountain v. McDonald, 27 Vet. App. 258 (2015). Entitlement to service connection for tinnitus The Veteran asserts that his current tinnitus began during active service in Afghanistan in 2013 due to hazardous noise exposure and has continued to the present. The Veteran has a current diagnosis of tinnitus. His claim for service connection was received November 22, 2014 and the record reflects that the Veteran was diagnosed with tinnitus during an October 2014 VA audiology consult. A diagnosis recent to the claim satisfies the current disability element of service connection. Romanowsky v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 289 (2013). Moreover, the Veteran has reported experiencing tinnitus to the present and is competent to diagnosis this disability. Charles v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 370 (2002) (tinnitus is a disorder that can be observed by a lay person). As to the second service connection element of an in-service injury, the Veteran stated he was exposed to large weapons firing, aviation sorties, Blackhawk helicopters, and rocket attacks. The Veteran’s military occupational specialty (MOS) of aviation electronic technician is consistent with these types of acoustic trauma. His personnel records also confirm service in an imminent danger pay area in Afghanistan. The Board finds competent and credible evidence to establish an in-service injury of acoustic trauma. The question remaining before the Board is whether the Veteran’s tinnitus began during or is related to acoustic trauma in active service. Because tinnitus is a chronic disease within the parameters of 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303(b), 3.307, and 3.309(a), service connection may also be established by (a) evidence of (i) the existence of tinnitus in service or within one year of separation and (ii) present manifestations of the same tinnitus, or (b) when a tinnitus is not present during service, evidence of continuity of symptomatology. Fountain. The Veteran’s service treatment records are negative for complaints or treatment for tinnitus. The mere fact that his assertions are not supported by contemporaneous clinical evidence does not render them inherently incredible. Buchanan v. Nicholson, 451 F.3d 1331, 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (“the Board cannot determine that lay evidence lacks credibility merely because it is unaccompanied by contemporaneous medical evidence”). The Veteran first began reporting tinnitus symptoms in a September 2014 VA outpatient note. Here the Veteran described a ringing type sound predominantly in the left ear. The Veteran also indicated in October 2014 that his symptoms began about 14 months prior to the date of examination, or three months after the Veteran’s separation from active duty service. The Veteran underwent a VA examination in May 2015 in which the examiner confirmed his tinnitus diagnosis. The Veteran stated he noticed the symptoms more after returning from Afghanistan in 2013. However, the examiner opined that his tinnitus was less likely than not caused by or a result of military noise exposure. He noted a lack of evidence in the claims file of any complaints of tinnitus during service or at separation as noised based trauma typically occurs at the time of exposure. This opinion is not probative, as it is based solely on the lack of contemporaneous evidence and does not account for the lay evidence reporting onset after demobilization. In a January 2016 VA outpatient report the Veteran again stated that he had ringing in the ears which began in about 2013. The Veteran stated that he believed the condition to be temporary, so he did not aggressively seek medical treatment upon returning from deployment, however the “buzzing” noise never went away. In his April 2016 notice of disagreement, the Veteran once again stated his tinnitus did not exist prior to Afghanistan, but he “began experiencing it during and after, and it has continued to this date.” The Veteran consistently reports the onset of his tinnitus during or shortly after deployment in 2013 and continuity of symptoms to the present. The Board has no reason to doubt the Veteran’s credibility concerning onset of tinnitus and continuing symptoms. The competent, credible, and probative evidence shows tinnitus onset during or within one year of service. Service connection for tinnitus is granted. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303(b), 3.307, 3.309. LAURA E. COLLINS Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board Associate Counsel, S. Conti 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.