BVA9504813 
DOCKET NO.  93-10 927     )       DATE
          )
          )

On appeal from the decision of the
Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Nashville,
Tennessee

THE ISSUE

Entitlement to service connection for a back disorder.

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD

John D. Nachmann, Associate Counsel

INTRODUCTION

The veteran had active military service from July 1943 to
December 1945.

This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board)
on appeal from a rating decision of July 1992 by the Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) Nashville, Tennessee, Regional Office
(RO).

CONTENTIONS OF APPELLANT ON APPEAL

The veteran contends that the RO was incorrect in not granting
his claim of entitlement to service connection for a back
disorder.  The veteran maintains that service connection for this
disorder is warranted because his current back disorder is the
result of a back injury that he sustained in a train accident
during service.  Therefore, he requests a favorable determination
by the Board.

DECISION OF THE BOARD

The Board, in accordance with the provisions of 38 U.S.C.A.
§ 7104 (West 1991), has reviewed and considered all of the
evidence and material of record in the veteran's claims file.
Based on its review of the relevant evidence in this matter, and
for the following reasons and bases, it is the decision of the
Board that the veteran has not submitted a well-grounded claim of
entitlement to service connection for a back disorder.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1.  All relevant evidence necessary for an equitable disposition
of the veteran's appeal has been obtained by the RO.

2.  Continuity of symptomatology of a back disorder following the
veteran's separation from service to the present has not been
demonstrated.

CONCLUSION OF LAW

The veteran has not submitted a well-grounded claim of
entitlement to service connection for a back disorder.
38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1110, 7105 (West 1991); 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (1994).

REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

The threshold question to be answered with respect to the
veteran's request for service connection for a back disorder is
whether he has presented a well-grounded claim; that is, a claim
which is plausible and capable of substantiation.  If he has not
presented a well-grounded claim, his appeal must fail and there
is no duty to assist him in the development of his claim because
such additional development would be futile.  See 38 U.S.C.A.
§ 5107(a); Murphy v. Derwinski, 1 Vet.App. 78, 81 (1990).  As
will be explained below, the Board finds that the veteran's claim
is not well grounded.

As a further preliminary matter, the Board notes that the
veteran's service medical records are unavailable as they were
apparently destroyed by a fire at the National Personnel Records
Center (NPRC) in 1973.  The Board is aware that the VA's
statutory duty to assist in the development of facts pertinent to
claims, including the obligation to search for alternate medical
records, is heightened in cases in which the service medical
records have been destroyed.  See Cuevas v. Principi, 3 Vet.App.
542, 548 (1992).  See also, Moore v. Derwinski, 1 Vet.App. 401,
406 (1991).  Consequently, the veteran's case was remanded for
further development in December 1993.

Service connection may be granted for disability resulting from
disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by wartime service.
38 U.S.C.A. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303.  With chronic disease
shown as such in service so as to permit a finding of service
connection, subsequent manifestations of the same chronic disease
at any later date, however remote, are service connected, unless
clearly attributable to intercurrent causes.  For the showing of
chronic disease in service, there is required a combination of
manifestations sufficient to identify the disease entity, and
sufficient observation to establish chronicity at the time.
Continuity of symptomatology is required only where the condition
noted during service is not shown to be chronic.  When the fact
of chronicity in service is not adequately supported, a showing
of continuity after discharge is required to support the claim.
38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b).

The only service records available indicate that the veteran was
on morning report on two different occasions in October 1944.
These records, however, do not show the reason for the veteran
being placed on morning report.

Records of treatment in 1951 at a VA facility, as listed by the
veteran on his compensation claim, could not be obtained.
Records from the Illinois Central Hospital were received and
constitute the only post-service medical records which show any
complaints, treatments, or diagnosis referable to the veteran's
back.  These records reveal that the veteran was hospitalized in
February 1956 for chronic indigestion, gas pains and hemorrhoids.
He had been working as a conductor for 14 years and had not
previously been hospitalized at that facility.  X-ray examination
of the lumbar spine revealed an exaggerated lordotic curve and
spondylolisthesis of L5-S1.  A final diagnosis of
spondylolisthesis was recorded.

Although the evidence of record indicates that the veteran was
diagnosed with a back disorder, such a diagnosis appears to have
been based on an incidental finding and was not rendered until
approximately 11 years after his separation from service.  In
addition, the treatment records that have been associated with
the claims file do not relate the veteran's back disorder to his
active service or indicate continuity of symptomatology since his
discharge from service.  Therefore, the veteran's claim of
entitlement to service connection for a back disorder is not well
grounded and must be dismissed.  See 38 U.S.C.A. § 7105(d)(5);
Boeck v. Brown, 6 Vet.App. 14, 17 (1993).

ORDER

The claim of entitlement to service connection for a back
disorder is dismissed.

          CHARLES E. HOGEBOOM
          Member, Board of Veterans' Appeals

The Board of Veterans' Appeals Administrative Procedures
Improvement Act, Pub. L. No. 103-271, § 6, 108 Stat. 740, ___
(1994), permits a proceeding instituted before the Board to be
assigned to an individual member of the Board for a
determination.  This proceeding has been assigned to an
individual member of the Board.

NOTICE OF APPELLATE RIGHTS:  Under 38 U.S.C.A. § 7266 (West
1991), a decision of the Board of Veterans' Appeals granting less
than the complete benefit, or benefits, sought on appeal is
appealable to the United States Court of Veterans Appeals within
120 days from the date of mailing of notice of the decision,
provided that a Notice of Disagreement concerning an issue which
was before the Board was filed with the agency of original
jurisdiction on or after November 18, 1988.  Veterans' Judicial
Review Act, Pub. L. No. 100-687, § 402 (1988).  The date which
appears on the face of this decision constitutes the date of
mailing and the copy of this decision which you have received is
your notice of the action taken on your appeal by the Board of
Veterans' Appeals.