HYPERTENSION

Summary

The veteran, who served from November 1960 to December 1964, appeals the denial of service connection for hypertension, bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy, and a heart disability. The veteran claimed presumptive service connection for hypertension and peripheral neuropathy due to herbicide exposure during his Vietnam service in 1964. While military records indicated his ship, the USS Kearsavage, did not enter Vietnamese territorial waters, the veteran submitted a flight log and testimony, corroborated by a plane commander's correspondence, that his aircraft regularly flew near the coast and landed in Vietnam. The Board found this evidence credible and resolved doubt in the veteran's favor, establishing presumed herbicide exposure and granting service connection for hypertension and bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy. The heart disability, while not presumptively linked to herbicides, was found to be secondary to the newly service-connected hypertension based on a favorable VA examiner opinion. Therefore, service connection for all three conditions was granted.

Rationale

Veteran served in Vietnam during the evidentiary period.; Herbicide exposure is presumed under 38 U.S.C. § 1116 and 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iii).; Hypertension is a presumptive condition for herbicide exposure under 38 U.S.C. § 1116(a)(2)(M).

Full Decision Text

Citation Nr: A26039565
Decision Date: 04/28/26	Archive Date: 04/28/26

DOCKET NO. 251008-587760
DATE: April 28, 2026

ORDER

Service connection for hypertension is granted.

Service connection for early onset peripheral neuropathy, left lower extremity is granted.

Service connection for early onset peripheral neuropathy, right lower extremity is granted.

Service connection for sinus bradycardia, status post dual pacemaker placement (heart disability), as secondary to hypertension, is granted.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Veteran was in the Republic of Vietnam during his active service.

2. Hypertension is presumptively associated with exposure to herbicide agents.

3. The bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy disability had its onset within a year after the Veteran was discharged from active service.  

4. The heart disability was caused by the service-connected hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

1. The criteria for service connection for hypertension are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1116, 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309.  

2. The criteria for service connection for early onset peripheral neuropathy, left lower extremity, are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309.

3. The criteria for service connection for early onset peripheral neuropathy, right lower extremity are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.307, 3.309.

4. The criteria for service connection for a heart disability, as secondary to hypertension, are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.310.

REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

The Veteran served on active duty from November 1960 to December 1964.  This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an August 2025 rating decision by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).  

Following the August 2025 rating decision, the Veteran submitted a VA Form 10182 (Notice of Disagreement) and selected the Hearing docket.  The Veteran testified at a Board hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) in January 2026.  A transcript of the hearing is of record.  The Board notes that the October 2025 Notice of Disagreement was submitted within a year of an October 2024 rating decision that denied the claims for service connection for hypertension, bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy and a heart disability.  The October  2024 rating decision determined that new and relevant evidence had been submitted in support of the claims.  The August 2025 rating decision listed in the Notice of Disagreement determined that new and relevant evidence had not been submitted in support of the August 2025 supplemental claim that it adjudicated.  Following review of the record, the Board determines that it is more favorable to the Veteran to consider the Notice of Disagreement to be taken from the October 2024 rating decision.  

Based on selection of the Hearing docket, the Board may consider evidence of record as of October 31, 2024-the date of the rating decision considered to be on appeal, and evidence submitted at or within 90 days of the January 12, 2026 Board hearing.  38 C.F.R. § 20.302.  

This matter has been advanced on the Board's docket pursuant to 38 U.S.C. § 7107(a)(2); 38 C.F.R. § 20.902(c). 

Service connection

Generally, service connection will be granted if the evidence demonstrates that a current disability resulted from a disease or injury incurred in active military service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a).  Establishing service connection requires evidence of a current disability, an in-service incurrence, disease or injury and a causal relationship between the current disability and the in-service incurrence, disease or injury.  Saunders v. Wilkie, 886 F.3d 1356, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2018). 

In addition
7107(a)(2); 38 C.F.R. § 20.902(c). 

Service connection

Generally, service connection will be granted if the evidence demonstrates that a current disability resulted from a disease or injury incurred in active military service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a).  Establishing service connection requires evidence of a current disability, an in-service incurrence, disease or injury and a causal relationship between the current disability and the in-service incurrence, disease or injury.  Saunders v. Wilkie, 886 F.3d 1356, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2018). 

In addition, a veteran who, during active service, served in Vietnam during the period beginning on January 9, 1962, and ending on May 7, 1975, shall be presumed to have been exposed during such service to an herbicide agent, including Agent Orange, unless there is affirmative evidence to establish that the veteran was not exposed to any such agent during that service.  38 U.S.C. § 1116; 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iii).  If a veteran is presumed to have been exposed to herbicides during such active service, the veteran shall be service connected for the diseases listed under 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e). 

Service connection may also be granted where a disability is proximately due to or aggravated by an already service-connected disability.  38 C.F.R. § 3.310.  To establish secondary service connection for a disability there must be (1) a current disability (for which secondary service connection is sought); (2) an existing service-connected disability, and (3) evidence that the current disability for which service connection is sought was either (a) caused or (b) aggravated by the service-connected disability.  38 C.F.R. § 3.310.  See Allen v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 439 (1995) (en banc).

When there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding any issue material to the determination of a matter, VA shall resolve reasonable doubt in favor of the claimant. 38 U.S.C. § 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.102; Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49 (1990).  To deny a claim on its merits, the evidence must preponderate against the claim. Alemany v. Brown, 9 Vet. App. 518 (1996).  

Hypertension and Bilateral Lower Extremity Peripheral Neuropathy

The Veteran contends that he is entitled to presumptive service connection for hypertension and bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy as a result of his exposure to herbicides while in Vietnam during his active service.  The diseases that are presumed to be related to herbicides include acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy that becomes 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).  Hypertension was added as a presumptive condition for herbicide exposure as part of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins Act of 2022 (PACT Act).  See 38 U.S.C. § 1116.  At issue here is whether the Veteran was physically present in Vietnam during his active service.  

The Veteran contends that his exposure to herbicides occurred in 1964 while serving on the crew of surveillance aircraft stationed on the USS Kearsavage.  Military personnel records confirm the Veteran's service on the USS Kearsavage during 1964, but a review of the deck logs, carrier deployment schedule and ship locator tool indicate that the ship did not travel in the territorial waters of Vietnam.  According to the Veteran, however, his surveillance aircraft regularly flew near the coast of Vietnam and, on one occasion, landed in Vietnam, where he spent the night.  In support of his contention, the Veteran submitted photographs depicting his plane and crew while stationed on the Kearsavage and his personal flight log, which includes a notation of "Vietnam" in August 1964.  The Veteran also submitted correspondence from his plane commander during the evidentiary window following the Board hearing.  The commander confirmed the many flights conducted near the coast of Vietnam and the occasion when the plane landed in Vietnam.  The Veteran testified at the January 2026 Board hearing that he spent the night in Vietnam, sleeping in the barracks.  See January 2026 Board hearing at p. 6
 aircraft regularly flew near the coast of Vietnam and, on one occasion, landed in Vietnam, where he spent the night.  In support of his contention, the Veteran submitted photographs depicting his plane and crew while stationed on the Kearsavage and his personal flight log, which includes a notation of "Vietnam" in August 1964.  The Veteran also submitted correspondence from his plane commander during the evidentiary window following the Board hearing.  The commander confirmed the many flights conducted near the coast of Vietnam and the occasion when the plane landed in Vietnam.  The Veteran testified at the January 2026 Board hearing that he spent the night in Vietnam, sleeping in the barracks.  See January 2026 Board hearing at p. 6-7.  The Board notes that the Veteran is competent to report the approximate geographical locations of his service and finds his assertion that he spent a night in Vietnam credible.  The contention is supported by the military personnel records documenting the Veteran's service as an airplane crewmember on the Kearsavage, the contemporaneous flight log the Veteran maintained and the correspondence from his plane commander.  Resolving all doubt in favor of the Veteran, the Board finds that the Veteran set foot in the Republic of Vietnam during his active service.  Herbicide exposure is thus presumed.  38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a)(6)(iii).  

As a result of the Veteran's presumed exposure to herbicides, he is entitled to presumptive service connection for hypertension.  38 U.S.C. § 1116(a)(2)(M).  The record also establishes that the Veteran first experienced symptoms of peripheral neuropathy within a year of his discharge from service.  See September 2024 VA Examination for Peripheral Neuropathy (including the Veteran's report that onset of the peripheral neuropathy condition was in the 1960s); January 2026 Board hearing, at p. 8 (Veteran testifying that the neuropathy condition was present within the first year after service).  The bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy disability is thus also entitled to presumptive service connection.  38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e).  Accordingly, the claims for service connection for hypertension and bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy are granted.  

Heart disability

The Board is bound by the favorable finding that the Veteran has a current heart disability.  See October 2024 Rating Decision; 38 C.F.R. § 3.104(c).  The diagnosed disability, AV block with sinus bradycardia status post pacemaker placement, does not qualify as a presumptive heart condition for herbicide exposure.  See September 2024 VA Examination for Heart Conditions; 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(e), Note 2.  However, as a result of this Board decision, the Veteran is service connected for hypertension.  An April 2024 VA examiner opined that the Veteran's heart condition was related to his hypertension.  Accordingly, the Board finds that the requirements for secondary service connection are met, and the claim for service connection for a heart disability, as secondary to hypertension, is granted.  38 C.F.R. § 3.310.

 

 

S.C. KREMBS

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	Snyder, M.

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.