Establishing Evidence For Future Claim

[Davo68]

I hope my question makes sense and is in the correct place. I have a question on evidence and the value of establishing a trail for a potential future claim.

My son is in the Air Force Reserve and has been for around 25 years, he has served two tours in Iraq and is about to begin a tour in Afghanistan. When he is not on active status, his day job is the same as his Reserve job, he is an F-16 mechanic. He has four areas of concern, bad lower back, neck problems, numbness to left hand, and Tinnitus. He has been to a civilian Doctor about the lower back and was diagnosed with a torn muscle, which he was treated for. The question is one of SC, how would he show evidence of service related vs civilian related, it's the same job, same shop, etc.? He will be deployed shortly to Afghanistan and I've told his to seek medical attention when he's on station, since his pain is constant, as well as letting a doctor know about his Tinnitus. He's sure that his problems were caused by the heavy lifting required with his job. He is hesitant to complain as he's afraid they will kick him out of the Reserves. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I understand that he can't submit a claim until he retires but wanted him to establish a history along the way.

[Philip Rogers]

In order to win, at the VA, he will need a documented injury on active duty. jmo

pr

[free_spirit_etc]

You can look up some of the similar BVA cases (use Search Decisions)http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva.html

And find cases like this:

http://www.va.gov/vetapp13/Files1/1309350.txt

and start to see the pattern of evidence and reasoning they use in these cases.

If the condition is just from repeated stress or trauma from the job - then the VA is probably going to say that:

1. It was caused by the civilian portion

or

2. The amount of stress from the civilian portion was greater and so the active duty portion didn't matter (or aggravate it beyond what it would have been).

Of course, an IMO could always argue that ALL the stress and trauma contributed, it you can't effectively separate out civilian from active duty trauma -- and therefore the active duty trauma contributed (i.e. was service connected). That would probably take going all the way to the BVA -- with a good IMO - IF he has some supporting documentation in the SMRS

An in service injury would be different. If he pulls any muscles, strains anything, starts experiencing pain while on active duty - then he really should get it documented (and treated) AND get it noted (and treated) if it keeps hurting.

So many folks have to fight to show something was chronic because they got treatment one time and then just put up with the pain until they couldn't put up with it anymore.