DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF NAVAL RECORDS
2 NAVY ANNEX
WASHINGTON DC 2O37O-5100

JRE
Docket No. 11019-06
14 January 2008

	

This is in reference to your application for correction of your naval record pursuant to the provisions of title 10 of the United States Code, section 1552.

A three-member panel of the Board for Correction of Naval Records, sitting in executive session, considered your application on 13 December 2007. Your allegations of error and injustice were reviewed in accordance with administrative regulations and procedures applicable to the Proceedings of this Board. Documentary material considered by the Board consisted of your application, together with all material submitted in Support thereof, your naval record and applicable statutes, regulations and policies.

After careful and conscientious consideration of the entire record, the Board found that the evidence submitted was insufficient to establish the existence of probable material error or injustice.

The Board found that you were discharged from the Navy by reason of physical disability on 6 November 1985, with entitlement to severance pay, because of an unfitting knee condition. Effective 7 November 1985, the Veterans Administration (VA) awarded you a combined disability rating of 20% for a hernia, hemorrhoids, and conditions of your knees and right hip. On 19 February 1997 the VA granted you service connection and disability ratings for epilepsy, status post excision of a brain tumor, 20%; skull loss residual to brain surgery, 10%; and a scar, 0%. Those ratings were effective from 11 July 1996, the date of your claim. it appears that the VA determined that you had a brain tumor which likely predated your naval service, and became mildly symptomatic on two occasions during your naval service, in 1970 and 1983.

The Board concluded that your failure to properly complete item 24 of the DA Form 3947, Medical Board Proceedings, you signed on
1 August 1985, and your contention that you did not understand the options available to you at that time, do not demonstrate that material error or injustice occurred in your case. The medical board report was advisory in nature. it was forwarded to the Central Physical Evaluation Board (CPEB) for determination of your fitness for duty. The CPEB found you unfit for duty because of a knee condition, assigned an appropriate disability rating, and directed that you be discharged by reason of physical disability, with entitlement to severance pay.

The Board was not persuaded that your brain tumor, which was diagnosed approximately ten years after you were discharged from the Navy, was incurred in or aggravated by your naval service, or that there were any unfitting and/or ratable manifestations of the tumor at the time of your discharge. Accordingly, and as you have not established that you were entitled to a total rating of 30% or higher at the time of your discharge, the Board was unable to recommend corrective action in your case. Accordingly, your application has been denied. The names and votes of the members of the panel will be furnished upon request.

It is regretted that the circumstances of your case are such that favorable action cannot be taken. You are entitled to have the Board reconsider its decision upon submission of new and material evidence or other matter not previously considered by the Board. In this regard, it is important to keep in mind that a presumption of regularity attaches to all official records. Consequently, when applying for a correction of an official naval record, the burden is on the applicant to demonstrate the existence of probable material error or injustice.

W.	DEAN PFFEIFFER
Executive Director