PROSTATE CANCER

FREDERIC P. GALLUN · 2026 · Case ID: A26021700

GRANTED

Summary

The veteran, who served in the U.S. Navy from May 1970 to February 1972, appeals the denial of service connection for prostate cancer. The veteran contends his cancer was caused by exposure to herbicides and/or asbestos during his service, particularly while aboard the USS America, which he believes operated within Vietnam's territorial waters. The Board reviewed the evidence, including the veteran's testimony, a shipmate's statement, private treatment records, and VA research. While service records did not definitively place the USS America within twelve nautical miles of Vietnam during the relevant period, the research was not exhaustive. The Board found the veteran's testimony credible regarding contact with herbicides from aircraft that flew over Vietnam and noted the award of the Vietnam Service Medal as probative evidence of his presence in eligible waters. The Board also considered a private medical opinion linking prostate cancer to herbicide exposure. Applying the benefit of the doubt and finding the evidence at least as likely as not to establish herbicide exposure and presence in eligible waters, the Board granted service connection for prostate cancer, recognizing it as a presumptive condition related to herbicide exposure.

Rationale

Veteran has current diagnosis of prostate cancer; Credible testimony of herbicide exposure in service; Presumptive service connection for prostate cancer due to herbicide exposure

Service Branch

NAVY

Special Benefit

NO SPECIAL BENEFIT

Docket No.

230524-349257

Full Decision Text

Citation Nr: A26021700
Decision Date: 03/10/26 Archive Date: 03/10/26

DOCKET NO. 230524-349257
DATE: March 10, 2026

ORDER

Entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer is granted.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Veteran was exposed to herbicide agents during his service in Vietnam.

2. The Veteran served in the Republic of Vietnam, which includes the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of Vietnam.

3. The Veteran has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

CONCLUSION OF LAW

The criteria for entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107; 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 in the United States Navy from May 1970 to February 1972. Among other medals and awards, the Veteran earned the Vietnam Service Medal which is awarded to service members who served in Vietnam and the contiguous waters and airspace. The Board recognizes the Veteran's service to our country, and the sacrifices it necessarily entailed.

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a May 2023 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).

In April 2023, the Veteran submitted a VA Form 20-0996, Decision Review Request: Higher-Level Review (HLR), and requested review of an April 2023 decision. In May 2023, the agency of original jurisdiction (AOJ) issued the HLR decision on appeal, which considered the evidence of record at the time of the prior April 2023 decision.

On a May 2023 VA Form 10182, Decision Review Request: Board Appeal (Notice of Disagreement), the Veteran elected the Hearing docket. A Board hearing was held on December 1, 2025, and a transcript of this hearing is of record.

Therefore, the Board may only consider the evidence of record at the time of the April 2023 agency of original jurisdiction (AOJ) decision, which was subsequently subject to higher-level review, as well as any evidence submitted by the Veteran or his representative at the hearing or within 90 days following the hearing. 38 C.F.R. § 20.302(a). If evidence was submitted either (1) during the period after the AOJ issued the decision, which was subsequently subject to higher-level review and prior to the Board hearing, or (2) more than 90 days following the hearing, the Board did not consider it in its decision. 38 C.F.R. §§ 20.300, 20.302(a), 20.801.

If the Veteran would like VA to consider any evidence that was submitted that the Board could not consider, the Veteran may file a Supplemental Claim (VA Form 20-0995) and submit or identify this evidence. 38 C.F.R. § 3.2501. If the evidence is new and relevant, VA will issue another decision on the claim, considering the new evidence in addition to the evidence previously considered. Id. Specific instructions for filing a Supplemental Claim are included with this decision.

Service Connection

Service connection may be granted if the evidence demonstrates that a current disability resulted from an injury or disease incurred or aggravated in active military service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). In general, service connection requires competent and credible evidence of (1) a current disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the current disability. See Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004).

VA regulations provide that if a veteran was exposed to an herbicide agent during active military, naval, or air service, the following diseases shall be service connected if the requirements of 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a) are met, even if there is no record of such disease during service: AL amyloidosis, chloracne or other acneform disease consistent with chloracne; type 2 diabetes (also known as Type II diabetes mellitus); Hodgkin's disease; chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL); multiple myeloma; Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy; porphyria cutanea tarda; prostate cancer; respiratory cancers (cancer of the lung, bronchus, larynx or trachea); soft tissue sarcoma (other than osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, or mesothelioma), chronic B-cell leukemias, Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease, parkinsonism, bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, hypertension, and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e). The diseases listed at 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e) shall have become manifest to a degree of 10 percent or more at any time after service, except that chloracne or other acneform disease consistent with chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, and early onset peripheral neuropathy shall have become manifest to a degree of 10 percent or more within a year after the last date on which the Veteran was exposed to an herbicide agent during active military, naval, or air service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(ii).

A veteran, who during active military, naval, or air service, served in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era shall be presumed to have been exposed during such service to an herbicide agent, unless there is affirmative evidence to establish that the veteran was not exposed to any such agent during service. 39 U.S.C. § 1116(f); 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iii). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) has held that the phrase "in the Republic of Vietnam" includes the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of Vietnam. Procopio v. Wilkie, 913 F.3d 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2019) (en banc). Thus, the presumption of exposure to herbicide agents now extends to veterans who served within that area, and they are entitled to presumptive service connection under 38 U.S.C. § 1116, so long as they meet the section's other requirements. This holding has been codified by the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 (BWN Act).

When herbicide exposure is not presumed, it must be determined that the Veteran was actually exposed to herbicides through verification from the appropriate service department or other sources for the presumption of service connection for an herbicide-related disease under 38 C.F.R. § 3.309 to be applicable. Exposure to herbicides is not presumed in such instances, but exposure to one of the following herbicides: "2,4-D; 2,4,5-T and its contaminant TCDD; cacodylic acid; and picloram," as listed in 38 C.F.R. § 3.307 can still be established if shown by the facts of the case. Once exposure to herbicides has been established by the facts of the case, the presumption of service connection found in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309 for herbicide-related diseases is applicable.

1. Entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer is granted.

The Veteran seeks service connection for the residuals of prostate cancer, which he contends was caused by exposure to herbicides and/or asbestos during his naval service. See Board Hearing Transcript (December 1, 2025).

The question for the Board is whether the Veteran has a current disability that began during service or is at least as likely as not related to an in-service injury, event, or disease.

The Board finds that the Veteran has a history of prostate cancer, status-post radical prostatectomy and currently in remission. Service treatment records do not show any diagnosis of prostate cancer during the Veteran's active service. Private treatment records show the Veteran was not diagnosed with prostate cancer until 2008, decades after separation from service. See Medical Treatment Record-Non-Government Facility (November 23, 2021). Thus, a current disability has
his naval service. See Board Hearing Transcript (December 1, 2025).

The question for the Board is whether the Veteran has a current disability that began during service or is at least as likely as not related to an in-service injury, event, or disease.

Despite the post-service diagnosis, Dr. M.A. opined that the Veteran's prostate cancer should be service connected. The rationale was that the Veteran's was exposed to asbestos and Agent Orange in service and subsequently developed prostate cancer. See Government Treatment Record-Non-Government Facility (uploaded February 10, 2026).

Moreover, examining the evidence in the light most favorable to the Veteran, the Board finds the Veteran served in the Republic of Vietnam, which includes the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of Vietnam.

With result to in-service incurrent, the Veteran credibly reports that he was exposed to Agent Orange and asbestos in service. The Veteran has asserted in statements to VA that the naval vessel he served on, the USS America, was so close to Vietnam that he could see bombs explode. He also testified that he served on the flight deck and he came in contact with the undercarriage of aircraft that flew over Vietnam. The Veteran posited that the aircraft would fly low over Vietnam and drop bombs. This, in turn, would cause disruption to the landscape and vegetation containing herbicides. Once disbursed into the air, the herbicides would collect on the underside of the planes. Finally, the Veteran asserted that his ship was "well within" the territorial waters of Vietnam because he was close enough to see the bombs explode on shore. See Correspondence (uploaded February 23, 2023).

The Veteran has also submitted a statement from a shipmate, S.P., who stated that he believed that the USS America came within seven miles of the Vietnam shoreline because there were instances where it became free to post mail. S.P. served as a postal clerk and each time the ship entered the territorial waters of Vietnam, there was no fee for postal mailing. The crew was instructed to write "Free" on the envelope and this was a sign the ship was within seven nautical miles of shore. Moreover, S.P. indicated that those who served aboard the USS America qualified to receive Vietnam Service Medals. See Buddy/Lay Statement (uploaded April 1, 2022).

While the Veteran's service personnel records confirm that he served aboard the USS America (CVA 66), which was deployed in the Western Pacific Theater from July 1970 to February 1972, research by Military Records Research Center could find no instance during that deployment where the ship came within twelve nautical miles of Vietnam. See Records Research Center Response (January 4, 2022). However, the research response only looked at deck logs for the ship from approximately January 28, 1971, through March 19, 1971. Therefore, the research was not exhaustive nor conclusive.

Despite the negative finding of exposure by the VA, the Board finds the consistent and credible testimony that, while stationed aboard the USS America, he came into direct contact with herbicides. Given the totality of the evidence, the Board finds the evidence is at least as likely as not that the Veteran was exposed to herbicides in Vietnam during the relevant period. Moreover, the Board finds the evidence at least as likely as not that the Veteran had duty or visitation in the Republic of Vietnam, or on its inland waterways, or nautical service in the offshore eligible waters as defined in the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019, Public Law 116-23. See VA Memo (uploaded December 14, 2022). The Board cannot ignore the award of the Vietnam Service Medal as probative evidence of the Veteran's presence in the territorial waters of Vietnam.

Under either theory, direct service connection and contact with herbicides from planes, or presumptive service connection based on the Veteran's service aboard the USS America, the Board finds in favor of a grant.

(Continued on the next page)

Given that prostate cancer is a condition that is presumed related to herbicide exposure under 38 C.F.R. § 3.307, § 3.309 and 38 U.S.C. § 1116(a)(2); service connection is warranted.
116-23. See VA Memo (uploaded December 14, 2022). The Board cannot ignore the award of the Vietnam Service Medal as probative evidence of the Veteran's presence in the territorial waters of Vietnam.

(Continued on the next page)

Given that prostate cancer is a condition that is presumed related to herbicide exposure under 38 C.F.R. § 3.307, § 3.309 and 38 U.S.C. § 1116(a)(2); service connection is warranted. Accordingly, entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer is granted. 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102.

Frederic P. Gallun

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board E. D. Anderson, 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.

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