Claim Raven explanation
What this means
This law applies the presumptions in sections 1111, 1112, and 1113 to veterans with qualifying service after December 31, 1946, despite the different wording in certain peacetime provisions.
You do not necessarily lose these presumptions because your service was outside a formally defined war period. The service and disease requirements in the incorporated provisions still need to be met.
How this helps your claim
If a decision relies on a peacetime distinction, compare it with this statute. It can identify why the soundness or chronic-disease rules in the wartime subchapter remain relevant to your service.
What to check in your records
Use your decision, examination reports, and relevant records to check the following points.
- Verify qualifying service after December 31, 1946.
- Identify the soundness or disease presumption involved.
- Check whether the decision applied the incorporated provisions rather than an inapplicable peacetime limitation.
Use this cross-reference to select the governing presumption
The statute connects qualifying later service with the soundness and disease-presumption provisions in sections 1111 through 1113. This can matter even when the service occurred during peacetime. The classification of the service period does not alone identify the final standard.
Read the incorporated provisions in full after checking the service dates. Their disease, evidence and other requirements remain applicable. This section changes which framework is used; it does not independently establish a diagnosis, an in-service event or the degree of disability.
Does this make every post-1946 disease presumptively connected?
No. It extends specified provisions to qualifying service, not every disease to every veteran. The conditions in those incorporated provisions still must be met. Use the cross-reference to find the correct analysis rather than treating the date alone as a complete basis for entitlement.
Official statutory text
38 USC § 1137
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.
§ 1137. Wartime presumptions for certain veterans
For the purposes of this subchapter and subchapter V of this chapter and notwithstanding the provisions of sections 1132 and 1133 of this subchapter, the provisions of sections 1111, 1112, and 1113 of this chapter shall be applicable in the case of any veteran who served in the active military, naval, air, or space service after December 31, 1946.
Related references
- 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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