BOARD DATE: 3 July 2012
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20110025239
THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE:
1. Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any).
2. Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any).
THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE:
1. The applicant requests to be awarded Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC).
2. The applicant states the people who made the decision on his CRSC claim did not take training for combat into account which is actually a simulation of war. He states additional conditions were denied that he actually incurred in the Republic of Vietnam and injuries he received in a mortar attack were ignored. He states he was evacuated because of these injuries.
3. The applicant provides medical treatment records, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rating decisions, and CRSC documents in support of his request.
CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE:
1. The applicant's record shows that after serving in an enlisted status in the Regular Army from 27 July 1966 through 24 August 1967, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) on 25 August 1967. He served in various active Reserve Component (RC) statuses, including service in both the USAR and Army National Guard (ARNG), until 31 May 2003 at which time he was transferred to the Retired Reserve in the rank/grade of lieutenant colonel/O-5.
2. CRSC, as established by Title 10, U.S. Code, section 1413a, provides for the payment of the amount of money a military retiree would receive from the VA for combat-related disabilities if it were not for the statutory prohibition for a military retiree to receive a VA disability pension. Payment is made by the Military Department, not the VA, and is tax free.
3. CRSC eligible members are those retirees who have 20 years of service for retired pay computation (or 20 years of service creditable for Reserve retirement at age 60) and who have disabilities that are the direct result of armed conflict, especially hazardous military duty, training exercises that simulate war, or caused by an instrumentality of war. Such disabilities must be compensated by the VA and rated at least 10-percent disabling.
4. To qualify for CRSC for periods before 1 January 2004 (the date this statute was amended), members must have disabilities that resulted in award of the Purple Heart and rated at least 10-percent disabled or rated at least 60-percent disabled as a direct result of armed conflict, especially hazardous duty, training exercises that simulate war, or caused by an instrumentality of war. Military retirees who are approved for CRSC must have waived a portion of their military retired pay since CRSC consists of the Military Department returning a portion of the waived retired pay to the military retiree.
5. On 14 March 2011, the CRSC Division, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Alexandria, Virginia, denied the applicant's claim for CRSC based on degenerative arthritis, tinnitus, and paralysis of his sciatic nerve. The CRSC Division stipulated that the basis for denial was that these conditions were non-combat related.
6. The medical treatment records provided by the applicant provide no indication the evaluated conditions were incurred as a result of combat-related action and, in fact, state that there was no evidence of a traumatic event related to the condition that resulted in his medical evacuation to Japan. The medical treatment records also fail to identify any specific training exercise (simulation of war) or combat action related to his treatment for the conditions in question.
7. The Under Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy provided policy guidance for processing CRSC appeals. This guidance states that for a condition to be considered combat-related, there must be evidence of the condition having a direct, causal relationship to war or the simulation of war.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
1. The CRSC criteria are specifically for those military retirees who have combat-related disabilities. Incurring disabilities in a theater of operations or in training exercises is not, in and of itself, sufficient to grant a military retiree CRSC. In order to qualify for CRSC, the military retiree must show the disability met the established disability criteria and was incurred while engaged in combat, while performing duties simulating combat conditions, or while performing especially hazardous duties such as parachuting or scuba diving.
2. The applicant's contention that his medical conditions were sustained while participating in training simulating war has been carefully considered. However, participation in a regularly-scheduled field exercise is not considered being in combat or participation in a training exercise simulating war. The evidence fails to show his condition was the result of simulation of war or a combat-related action. Without evidence to establish a direct, causal relationship to the applicant's disability to war or the simulation of war, there is insufficient basis in which to grant his request.
BOARD VOTE:
________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING
__X___ __X_____ ____X____ DENY APPLICATION
BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION:
The evidence presented does not demonstrate the existence of a probable error or injustice. Therefore, the Board determined the overall merits of this case are insufficient as a basis for correction of the records of the individual concerned.
_________X________________
CHAIRPERSON
I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case.
ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20110025239
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ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20110025239
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