Citation Nr: 0709937 Decision Date: 04/05/07 Archive Date: 04/16/07 DOCKET NO. 05-20 028 ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Hartford Regional Office in Newington, Connecticut THE ISSUE Entitlement to service connection for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). REPRESENTATION Appellant represented by: Disabled American Veterans ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD E.B. Joyner, Associate Counsel INTRODUCTION The veteran served on active duty from November 1964 to December 1968. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from a rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Hartford Regional Office (RO) in Newington, Connecticut. In March 2007, the Board granted a motion filed by the veteran's representative to advance the veteran's appeal on the Board's docket. REMAND The veteran contends that service connection for PTSD is warranted because it is the result of in-service stressors that occurred while the veteran was serving in Vietnam. The record reflects that veteran has identified a few stressors in several statements submitted to the RO. Specifically, in a form received by the RO in August 2004 along with his claim for service connection, the veteran stated that he had two stressors, one which occurred in December 1966 and involved an incident where his company received small arms and machine gun fire while assigned to guard and rebuild a bridge on Route-1 near Cam-Lo, and another incident which occurred in September 1967 and involved the detonation of a bomb that killed 13 marines five miles north of Camp Evans. The RO has stated that the veteran has not provided enough specificity in order to verify his alleged stressors. In the Board's opinion, the veteran has provided sufficient details of these alleged stressors to warrant further development to verify them. Accordingly, the case is REMANDED to the RO or the Appeals Management Center (AMC) in Washington, D.C., for the following actions: 1. The AMC or RO should send the veteran a letter providing the notice required under 38 U.S.C.A. § 5103(a); 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(b), to include notice that the veteran may submit "buddy" statements in order to help substantiate his alleged stressors, as well as the notice specified by the Court in Dingess/Hartman. 2. The AMC or RO should then undertake appropriate development to obtain any pertinent evidence identified but not provided by the veteran. If the AMC or RO is unable to obtain any pertinent evidence identified by the veteran, it should so inform the veteran and his representative and request them to submit the outstanding evidence. 3. Thereafter, the RO or the AMC should contact the Marine Corps University Archives in order to verify the veteran's claimed stressors, namely that his company received small arms and machine gun fire while assigned to guard and rebuild a bridge on Route-1 near Cam-Lo in December 1966, and the detonation of a bomb that killed 13 marines five miles north of Camp Evans in September 1967. 4. The RO or the AMC should then undertake any other indicated development and readjudicate the issue on appeal based on a de novo review of the record. If the benefit sought on appeal is not granted to the veteran's satisfaction, the veteran and his representative should be furnished a supplemental statement of the case and provided an appropriate opportunity to respond. Thereafter, the case should be returned to the Board for further appellate action, if otherwise in order. By this remand, the Board intimates no opinion as to any final outcome warranted. No action is required of the appellant until he is otherwise notified, but he has the right to submit additional evidence and argument on the matter the Board has remanded. See Kutscherousky v. West, 12 Vet. App. 369 (1999). This claim must be afforded expeditious treatment. The law requires that all claims that are remanded by the Board of Veterans' Appeals or by the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims for additional development or other appropriate action must be handled in an expeditious manner. See 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 5109B, 7112 (West Supp. 2006). _________________________________________________ Shane A. Durkin Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Under 38 U.S.C.A. § 7252 (West 2002), only a decision of the Board of Veterans' Appeals is appealable to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. This remand is in the nature of a preliminary order and does not constitute a decision of the Board on the merits of your appeal. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1100(b) (2006).