Citation Nr: 21041282 Decision Date: 07/08/21 Archive Date: 07/08/21 DOCKET NO. 16-57 711 DATE: July 8, 2021 ORDER Service connection for a left knee disorder is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Board resolves reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor by finding that his left knee disorder is etiologically related to his active duty service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for a left knee disorder have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served in the Army Reserve from September 1965 to August 1971, with active duty for training (ACDUTRA) from December 1965 to June 1966. Service personnel records also document several other periods of training throughout his Reserve service. The Veteran died in November 2017 and the Appellant is his surviving spouse. She has been substituted as the claimant. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an April 2014 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). The Veteran requested a hearing when formalizing his appeal in October 2016. The Appellant was scheduled for a hearing in March 2021, but withdrew the hearing request. The Board will proceed accordingly. See 38 C.F.R. § 20.704(e). Service Connection Entitlement to service connection for a left knee disorder Service connection may be established for a disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by service. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Generally, in order to prove service connection, there must be competent, credible evidence of (1) a current disability, (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of an injury or disease, and (3) a nexus, or link, between the current disability and the in-service disease or injury. See, e.g., Davidson v. Shinseki, 581 F.3d 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2009); Pond v. West, 12 Vet. App. 341 (1999). Prior to his death the Veteran sought service connection for a left knee disorder, which he asserted was incurred during basic training in January 1966 when he jumped over a wall and landed on a rock with his left knee. The Veteran also reported that he "reinjured, or further tore," his left knee during summer camp in Fort Eustis, Virginia in 1966 or 1967, and had also reported tearing his meniscus in 1967 playing golf, requiring surgery. The Veteran contended that the 1967 golf injury was due to his initial injury. The Veteran was diagnosed with left knee osteoarthritis prior to his death, so the first criterion for establishing service connection has been met. The question becomes whether this condition is related to service. Service treatment records do not document an injury to the Veteran's left knee; however, the Veteran is competent to report the January 1966 injury as well as subsequent in-service injuries to his left knee, and the Board finds his reports to be credible. In addition, contemporaneous private treatment records corroborate that the Veteran reinjured his left knee during annual active duty for training (ANACDUTRA) at Fort Eustis, Virginia in August 1967 and at Fort Sheridan, Illinois in July 1968. More specifically, a private treatment record dated August 26, 1967, reports that the Veteran was experiencing knee pain after reporting for Army duty two weeks after having knee surgery "and with 16 to 18 hours on feet has swelling and fluid." A private treatment record dated August 9, 1968, reports another injury occurred during the Veteran's ANACDUTRA on July 23, 1968, when the Veteran jumped off a log 40+ inches onto a hillside, twisted his left knee, and felt a snap "seemingly lateral" during summer Army camp. In addition to the Veteran's competent and credible reports of an in-service injury to his left knee during basic training in January 1966 and the private treatment records that document subsequent injuries to the left knee during two periods of ANACDUTRA, the record also contains a July 2014 letter from Dr. J.M., the Veteran's private treating orthopedic surgeon, who provided an opinion that the Veteran's left knee osteoarthritis was undoubtedly related to the injury sustained in the military in January 1966. Since this opinion establishes that the Veteran's left knee osteoarthritis is etiologically related to the left knee injury during active duty service, the Board resolves reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor by finding that service connection for a left knee disorder is warranted. K. A. BANFIELD Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board M. Jesteadt, Associate 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.