There are a variety of ways veterans can get VA service-connected disability compensation: direct, aggravation, secondary and presumptive.

Direct service-connection: Service-connection is granted on a direct basis for a disease or disability that was first diagnosed as a chronic condition on active duty that the veteran will continue to have throughout his life. The condition must be chronic and not “acute or transitory,” such as a one-time sprained ankle that heals with no residual problems. Generally, there must be evidence in service medical records of a diagnosis. Notes of only pain or other symptoms are not the same as an official diagnosis supported by such things as medical evaluations, scans or x-rays. It’s never too late to file a claim for direct service-connection, as long as the service medical records show the diagnosis and the veteran provides current medical evidence that he still has/is being treated for the same condition.

Aggravation: If a veteran enters service with a noted, chronic disability such as flat feet or hearing loss, he can still get service-connection for this disability, but only if the condition was “aggravated” in service, meaning it got measurably worse during active duty, unless the worsening is a “natural” progression of the condition.

Secondary: When a veteran’s service-connected disability causes a separate disability any time in their life, they can claim the new condition as secondary to the service-connected disability. For example, if a veteran is service-connected for lumbar spine degenerative disc disease and then develops radiculopathy (pain, numbness and/or tingling in one or both lower extremities from the lumbar disks pressing on a nerve), he can claim this new disability by stating it is secondary to the service-connected lumbar spine and providing medical evidence that he has been diagnosed/treated for the new, chronic condition.

Presumptive: Service-connection is given for disabilities that were not diagnosed on active duty, but are “presumed” to have begun in service. For certain select disabilities, if they manifest to a compensable degree (warrants at least a 10% rating) within one year of leaving active duty, a veteran can still get service connection for them. The one-year presumptive conditions include hypertension, arthritis and diabetes among several others, all listed in Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 38, 3.309. There are also a few disabilities with longer presumptive periods, such as Multiple Sclerosis, which is seven years.

There are also presumptive disabilities that will be granted if a veteran gets them anytime in their life, such as those exposed to herbicides in Vietnam (and in some cases, Thailand or Korea), as well as for radiation-exposed veterans, tropical diseases, diseases specific to former POWs, and Gulf-War Illnesses, with various criteria needing to be met in order to be granted service connection. Any veteran of any service period who gets Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, will also be granted service-connected disability for this condition.

NOTE: For VA purposes, disability compensation is granted only for conditions that arose during active duty (service for which a veteran gets a DD 214 issued). If someone served only in the National Guard or Reserves and never had a period of being called to active duty, the only disabilities they can claim would be injuries that occurred during weekend drills or annual training. To claim such an injury, one must provide a Line of Duty report of the injury, along with a diagnosis of the chronic disability.

An accredited veterans service officer can advise you on the types of service connection and what evidence is needed to be successful in filing a claim.

Sandy Britt is a Montgomery County veterans service officer. If you have a general question or topic you’d like covered in a future column, email sjbritt@mcgtn.net. Questions about a specific claim can be addressed only by calling the MCVSO for an office appointment with a service officer.

