Entitlement to service connection for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to include due to herbicide agent exposure, is denied.

Board reasoning

The Board finds that, although the Veteran had in-service herbicide exposure, the probative evidence shows COPD and gum disease did not begin during service or relate to any in-service injury or disease, including herbicide exposure. The most probative opinions from November 2024 weigh against a nexus to service, considering the Veteran’s extensive post-service smoking and occupational exposures, and the contemporaneous service records show no respiratory or dental disease in service or within a year of discharge. The Board therefore denies both claims, applying the benefit-of-the-doubt doctrine only where the evidence is in equipoise, which it is not.