The only money in this category is really going to be tats and STDs. You can claim the rest as risk factors and they will be considered (I was just joking about the Alien Abduction for all you guys from New Mexico) but until the VA floodgates bust, they are going to resist the jet guns. I know its unrealistic, but I’m going to be brutally honest. I personally suggest everyone list it on their claim and soon it will become accepted as a medical fact. List it along with all those inoculations you received with reused syringes, needles, vials, finger-stick lancets, and razors, especially (dry shave). Jetguns, as a stand alone claim, on a windy Tuesday, at the VARO in Waco, Texus, with 2 jet gun nexus, it might happen. But they better be” Most Likely” nexus and I still wouldn’t bet a new Lexus on it. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it. I sincerely wish it was otherwise. I never ever wished to be wrong about something more than this. If you have documented evidence of in-service STDs, you have a very valid claim assuming there isn’t a continuing medical hx of new, different STDs after service. If you have tattoos and you can prove you got them in service, that, too, is an asset in documenting risk. The military inspects you during your preliminary. physical and lists type/location of every tattoo/ scar on your body. They’re supposed to do the same on your separation physical. Okay, now stay with me here guys. If you have more tats on you when they give you the C&P exam than you did when you left the service, then the VA is going to come to the misguided conclusion that perhaps you got some of them after your discharge. If so, that would constitute a risk factor after service and not be SC. VAspeak= you lose/denied. Now, there is an exception to this. You may have gotten those tattoos after 1992. Those would be considered more “sanitary”. If your liver biopsy says Stage 3, then your disease is in the sixties to the early seventies. If your tattoos were acquired in the late 70’s on, then you can logically say they are not the reason for your HCV and still win. The “dead” zone for your claim is that 6 to 10 year window right after service for any risk factors- even wild, unprotected sex. The risk you will win with HAS to be IN SERVICE, not before or after.