Citation Nr: 21027231 Decision Date: 05/05/21 Archive Date: 05/05/21 DOCKET NO. 16-50 664 DATE: May 5, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for ischemic heart disease is denied. Entitlement to service connection for hypertension is denied. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. The Veteran was not exposed to herbicide agents during active service. 2. Ischemic heart disease was not manifest in service or within one year. Ischemic heart disease is not otherwise attributable to service. 3. Hypertension was not manifest in service or within one year and is not otherwise attributable to service. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. Ischemic heart disease was not incurred in or aggravated by active service, nor may it be presumed to have been incurred therein. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 1112, 1113, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309. 2. Hypertension was not incurred in or aggravated by active service, nor may it be presumed to have been incurred therein. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 1112, 1113, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS The Veteran served on active duty from November 1962 to November 1966. This matter was previously before the Board in December 2018. The Veteran appealed the Board's decision to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court). In a September 2020 memorandum decision, the Court remanded the case to the Board for action consistent with the decision. Service Connection To establish service connection a Veteran must generally show: "(1) the existence of a present disability; (2) 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." Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Service connection may also be granted for any disease diagnosed after discharge, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disease was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (d). Veterans who served on the ground in Vietnam from January 9, 1962, through May 7, 1975, are presumed to have been exposed to herbicides during such service. Also, effective June 19, 2015, VA regulations were amended to provide for presumptive herbicide exposure for certain individuals who served in the Air Force or Air Force Reserve who operated, maintained, or served onboard C-123 aircrafts involved in the spraying of herbicide agents during the Vietnam era. Service connection for chronic disease may be granted if manifest to a compensable degree within one year of separation from service. 38 U.S.C.§§ 1101, 1112, 1113; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309. For the showing of chronic disease in service there is required a combination of manifestations sufficient to identify the disease entity, and sufficient observation to establish chronicity at the time, as distinguished from merely isolated findings or a diagnosis including the word "Chronic." When the disease identity is established (leprosy, tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, etc.), there is no requirement of evidentiary showing of continuity. Continuity of symptomatology is required only where the condition noted during service (or in the presumptive period) is not, in fact, shown to be chronic or where the diagnosis of chronicity may be legitimately questioned. When the fact of chronicity in service is not adequately supported, then a showing of continuity after discharge is required to support the claim. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (b). Herein, chronic diseases encompasses ischemic heart disease and hypertension. Service connection for a recognized chronic disease can also be established through continuity of symptomatology. Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331 (2013); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303 (b), 3.309. 1. Entitlement to service connection for ischemic heart disease The Veteran seeks service connection for his ischemic heart disease, which he contends is the result of exposure to Agent Orange during his service in Guam. Service treatment records contain no complaint or treatment for a heart disability. Personnel records show that the Veteran served at Naval Air Station Agana, Guam from 1963-4. He has reported that his duties as an aircraft mechanic required him to service C-123 planes which were bringing wounded service personnel back from Vietnam. Further, he reports that the planes were contaminated with Agent Orange and that his duties involved cleaning the planes. A former fellow service member has submitted a statement supporting the Veteran's contentions. However, the Veteran denied exposure to Agent Orange on his application for benefits. Due to inconsistency, the Board finds the Veteran's statements regarding exposure to Agent Orange to be not credible and of limited probative value. While there is a presumption of herbicide exposure for Air Force members who regularly maintained C-123 planes involved in spraying herbicide agents, that presumption is not applicable to the Veteran because he served in the Navy. Further, in March 2016 the National Museum of the United States Air Force confirmed that the C-123 aircraft landing in Guam were on missions to ferry injured service personnel. Aviation Historical Summaries OPNAV Form 5750-2s, submitted by NAS Agana, Guam, covering the period from September 30, 1962 to April 1, 1965 do not document that aircraft returned from the Republic of Vietnam contaminated with Agent Orange or other tactical herbicides. Moreover, in April 2017, VA noted that the Department of Defense had not identified any location on the island of Guam, including NAS Agana, where Agent Orange had been used, tested, stored or transported. It was further noted that Agent Orange had been developed for jungle combat operations in Vietnam and had been used there from 1962 to early 1971. There were no combat operations on Guam during those years and so there was no need for Agent Orange use there. Additionally, Guam was not on the Agent Orange shipping supply line, which went directly from storage at Gulfport, Mississippi to South Vietnam via merchant ships. Also, no scientific evidence available to VA shows that being in the vicinity of aircraft, equipment, or living or deceased personnel from Vietnam can be considered as exposure to active Agent Orange or can result in long-term health effects. The Board finds the objective historical record to be of greater probative value than the Veteran's inconsistent recollections. Accordingly, the Veteran does not meet the criteria for a finding of exposure to Agent Orange. WE find that there is no presumption of exposure and no factual foundation that would establish actual exposure. While there are medical opinions of records connecting the Veteran's ischemic heart disease to his active service, those opinions are based on the Veteran's reports of exposure to Agent Orange. Given the discussion above, however, the Board finds those opinions are based on an inaccurate factual premise. Such medical opinions have no probative value. Reonal v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 458 (1993). Finally, the Veteran's ischemic heart disease was first manifest in 2005, several decades after his separation from active duty. Therefore, the presumption for chronic diseases is not applicable. In sum, ischemic heart disease was not manifest in service or within one year, and it is not otherwise attributable to service, to include the Veteran's claimed exposure to Agent Orange. The preponderance of the evidence is against the claim. Service connection for ischemic heart disease is denied. 2. Entitlement to service connection for hypertension The Veteran's representative has argued that the Veteran's hypertension is secondary to his ischemic heart disease. However, because service connection for ischemic heart disease has not been granted, there is no basis for such a secondary service-connection claim. Service treatment records show normal blood pressure readings during service. At separation, his blood pressure was 120/80. Post-service medical records first show treatment for hypertension in October 2009, though a February 2011 note indicates that such treatment began in 1998. This is more than thirty years after his separation. Hypertension was not noted, manifest or diagnosed during service or within one year of separation. Furthermore, he did not have characteristic manifestations of such disease process during such time frame. Rather, at separation the vascular system was normal and blood pressure was 120/80. The Board accordingly finds that the Veteran's hypertension was not manifest in service or within one year and that it is not otherwise attributable to service. The preponderance of the evidence is against the claim and there is no doubt to be resolved. Service connection for hypertension is denied. H. N. SCHWARTZ Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board A. Creegan 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.