Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This statute provides authority for presumptions involving illnesses associated with specified Gulf War service exposures. It ties coverage to illnesses and requirements established through the applicable regulatory process.
It should be read with the actual illness-specific rule and other Gulf War statutes. The existence of this authority alone does not make every disease following a deployment presumptively service connected.
How this helps your claim
Identify the particular illness and implementing presumption that fit your claim. If no presumption applies, review whether the evidence supports another connection to service.
What to check in your records
Use your decision, examination reports, and relevant records to check the following points.
- Confirm the qualifying service and claimed exposure circumstances.
- Identify the illness-specific regulation or statutory provision relied on.
- Review medical findings that establish the diagnosis or qualifying symptom pattern.
Follow the authority to the illness-specific rule
This statute provides a framework for establishing certain Gulf War presumptions. The authority to create coverage and the actual rule providing coverage are different things. Identify the illness-specific provision that applies to the diagnosed or described disability.
Keep the service circumstances and the required medical facts connected to that provision. A broad statement that Gulf War illnesses are presumptive may leave out the category or conditions involved. The statutory framework should guide you to the applicable rule rather than stand in for its requirements.
Does this statute make all postdeployment illnesses presumptive?
No. It operates through the applicable illness-specific rules and related statutes. A condition arising after deployment still needs the relevant qualifying analysis. Sequence in time alone does not establish that every disease is covered by a presumption or caused by service.
Official statutory text
38 USC § 1118
OLRC release through Public Law 119-102 (July 12, 2026). Layout and spacing are adapted for reading. The statutory text is shown here; publisher source credits and editorial notes remain in the linked official release.
§ 1118. Presumptions of service connection for illnesses associated with service in the Persian Gulf during the Persian Gulf War
(a)(1) For purposes of section 1110 of this title, and subject to section 1113 of this title, each illness, if any, described in paragraph (2) shall be considered to have been incurred in or aggravated by service referred to in that paragraph, notwithstanding that there is no record of evidence of such illness during the period of such service.
(2) An illness referred to in paragraph (1) is any diagnosed or undiagnosed illness that—
(A) the Secretary determines in regulations prescribed under this section to warrant a presumption of service connection by reason of having a positive association with exposure to a biological, chemical, or other toxic agent, environmental or wartime hazard, or preventive medicine or vaccine known or presumed to be associated with service in the Armed Forces in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War; and
(B) becomes manifest within the period, if any, prescribed in such regulations in a veteran who served on active duty in that theater of operations during that war and by reason of such service was exposed to such agent, hazard, or medicine or vaccine.
(3) For purposes of this subsection, a veteran who served on active duty in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War and has an illness described in paragraph (2) shall be presumed to have been exposed by reason of such service to the agent, hazard, or medicine or vaccine associated with the illness in the regulations prescribed under this section unless there is conclusive evidence to establish that the veteran was not exposed to the agent, hazard, or medicine or vaccine by reason of such service.
(4) For purposes of this section, signs or symptoms that may be a manifestation of an undiagnosed illness include the signs and symptoms listed in section 1117(g) of this title.
(b) The Secretary shall ensure that any determination made on or after the date of the enactment of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 regarding a presumption of service connection based on a toxic exposure under this section is made pursuant to subchapter VII of this chapter.
Related references
- 38 USC § 1110: Wartime disability compensation eligibility
- 38 USC § 1113: When a VA Presumption Can Be Rebutted
- 38 USC § 1117: Gulf War Illness Under the PACT Act
- 38 USC § 5107: Benefit of the doubt in VA claims
- 38 CFR § 3.159: VA duty to assist: records and examinations
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