01 / Occupational profile
Your 11B occupational profile
Hazardous noise
Common occupational factor
Infantry duty is treated as a highly probable noise-exposure occupation in VA's adjudication guidance, because rifle, machine-gun, and grenade-launcher fire routinely exceed hearing-hazard thresholds even with hearing protection in use.
Physical demands and load carriage
Common occupational factor
Sustained load carriage, road marches, and repeated lifting are characteristic of the occupation and are documented in Army physical-demands literature.
Blast and trauma potential
Assignment-dependent
Exposure to blast overpressure varies widely: shoulder-fired weapons, breaching charges, and IED events during deployment are recognized sources, but many 11B soldiers never experienced a blast event.
Deployment-dependent exposures
Location-dependent
Location and dates control this entirely. Service on or near an installation with an open burn pit during covered periods may bring a claim within the PACT Act presumptive framework; service elsewhere does not.
Combat and operational stressors
Assignment-dependent
Infantry assignments carry an elevated likelihood of exposure to combat stressors during deployment, but exposure remains individual and must be described, not assumed.
Assignment matters
Select one to highlight potentially relevant factors; this does not determine what happened in your service. Select it again in the Evidence Builder if it applied to you.
02 / Your service
What did you actually do?
Your MOS is the starting point. Your actual assignment, era, equipment, location, and duties determine which parts of the occupational history are relevant. Use the Evidence Builder below to select your actual duties and see records that may corroborate them.
Infantry duty is built around moving and fighting on foot with equipment. Field time is dominated by foot movement under load, repeated ingress and egress from vehicles or aircraft, digging and constructing fighting positions, and live-fire training with rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and shoulder-fired weapons. Body armor plus a combat load routinely places sustained axial and shoulder load on the spine and lower extremities, and published Army and allied-military studies document musculoskeletal injury rates tied to load carriage and repetitive marching in infantry populations. Which of these applied to any individual soldier depends on unit, assignment, era, and deployment history.
Duty content differs sharply by assignment. A light-infantry rifleman in an airborne battalion, a mechanized soldier in a Bradley section, and a Stryker infantryman carry different load, vibration, and noise profiles even under the same MOS.
Duties that may vary by assignment
- Foot movement under a fighting load and rucksack, frequently over uneven terrain
- Live-fire training and qualification with rifles, machine guns, and grenade launchers
- Repetitive lifting and carrying of ammunition, water, radios, and crew-served weapon components
- Fighting-position construction, digging, and prolonged kneeling and prone work
- Airborne operations in airborne-coded assignments; vehicle mounting and dismounting in mechanized and Stryker units
- Field living conditions: sleep disruption, temperature extremes, and dust
- For post-9/11 service, deployment environments that may include blast events, convoy operations, and open-air burn-pit smoke
Related historical codes: 11M (Bradley infantry, consolidated into 11B in 2004); 11H (heavy anti-armor weapons, consolidated 2004)
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Military Occupational Evidence Builder
Based on what you actually did in the military, what records might document it? Select only what applied to you. No name, file number, contact details, free text, or upload. Nothing is saved or sent.
Military service
Army · 11B Infantryman
For another specialty, open its guide from the MOS library. A job code alone does not establish individual duties or exposure.
Era(s) of service
Deployments
Already have a VA decision?
Your Evidence Builder identifies records that may document your service history. If VA has already decided your claim, the next question is different: what did VA accept, what did VA reject, and why?
Request a free decision review03 / Corroboration
Building your occupational history
Records matter because they can connect a job title to an individual's actual work and circumstances.
Hazardous noise
Records that may corroborate it
- · Hearing-conservation audiograms (DD 2215 entrance / DD 2216 periodic) and DOEHRS-HC data
- · Weapons qualification and range records
- · Enrollment in a hearing-conservation program, which itself indicates a noise-hazardous duty assignment
Limit: Accepted noise exposure does not establish a current hearing-loss disability for VA purposes, which is defined by the audiometric thresholds in 38 CFR § 3.385, and it does not by itself supply the medical link between service noise and a current diagnosis.
Physical demands and load carriage
Records that may corroborate it
- · Evaluation report (NCOER) bullets describing road marches, air-assault or airborne operations, and field time
- · Temporary and permanent physical profiles (DA Form 3349)
- · Sick-call entries, physical-therapy referrals, and any MEB or LIMDU documentation
Limit: Typical demands of the occupation are not proof that a specific joint was injured in service. A current diagnosis and evidence tying that diagnosis to service are generally still required.
Blast and trauma potential
Records that may corroborate it
- · Line-of-duty determinations and incident or after-action reports
- · Post-Deployment Health Assessment / Reassessment (DD 2796 / DD 2900) entries
- · Combat Infantryman Badge or Combat Action Badge on the DD-214
- · Contemporaneous treatment notes describing an altered-consciousness event
Limit: A combat badge does not diagnose a traumatic brain injury, and a blast event does not establish residual disability without current clinical findings.
Deployment-dependent exposures
Records that may corroborate it
- · Deployment orders, travel vouchers, and the DD-214 remarks block
- · Unit deployment histories and mobilization orders
- · VA's Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry entry
Limit: The MOS itself proves nothing about location. Presumptive status depends on the statutory location and time period plus a listed condition, not on the job title.
Combat and operational stressors
Records that may corroborate it
- · Combat badges, award citations, and unit after-action reports
- · VA Form 21-0781 stressor statement and buddy statements
- · Behavioral-health encounters during or after service
Limit: A stressor is one element. A PTSD claim also requires a diagnosis meeting the DSM-5 criteria and a link between the stressor and the diagnosis, per 38 CFR § 3.304(f).
04 / Evidence standard
What your MOS can — and cannot — establish
May help document
Work performed, circumstances of service, consistency of an alleged exposure, and the nature or duration of duties where supported by individual records.
Does not automatically establish
A diagnosis, medical causation, severity, percentage, presumption, or entitlement to service connection.
05 / Medical evidence
Conditions that may be relevant to the occupational history
This is not a list of conditions to claim. A veteran's actual diagnosis and individual service record determine relevance; occupational evidence is not medical causation.
Hearing +
Tinnitus
Why the occupation may matter: Infantry weapons fire is a recognized hazardous-noise source and the occupation is treated as high-probability for noise exposure in VA's guidance.
Records and clinical evidence: A current report of persistent tinnitus, audiology examination, and a lay account of onset and continuity; audiograms showing a threshold shift help but are not required for tinnitus.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
Sensorineural hearing loss
Why the occupation may matter: Repeated impulse noise is associated with high-frequency sensorineural loss in occupational-health literature.
Records and clinical evidence: Audiometry meeting the 38 CFR § 3.385 disability thresholds, entrance and separation audiograms for comparison, and a medical opinion addressing the pattern of loss.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
Lumbar spine +
Lumbar strain, degenerative disc disease
Why the occupation may matter: Load carriage and repetitive lifting place cumulative axial load on the lumbar spine.
Records and clinical evidence: Current imaging and range-of-motion findings, in-service sick-call or profile records, and an opinion addressing cumulative loading rather than a single incident.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
Knees +
Patellofemoral pain, meniscal pathology, degenerative arthritis
Why the occupation may matter: Marching under load, repeated kneeling, and jumping from vehicles or aircraft are recognized mechanical stressors.
Records and clinical evidence: Current diagnosis with measured flexion and extension, evidence of instability if claimed, and documentation of in-service onset or continuity.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
Ankles and feet +
Ankle instability, plantar fasciitis, pes planus aggravation
Why the occupation may matter: Uneven-terrain movement under load is a documented mechanism for ankle sprain recurrence and plantar heel pain.
Records and clinical evidence: Treatment records, current examination findings, and — where a foot condition pre-existed service — evidence addressing aggravation beyond natural progression.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
Mental health +
PTSD, depressive and anxiety disorders
Why the occupation may matter: Combat and operational stressor exposure is more likely in infantry assignments, though it remains individual.
Records and clinical evidence: A diagnosis meeting DSM-5 criteria, a described and where possible corroborated stressor, and treatment records showing occupational and social impairment.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
Neurologic / TBI +
TBI residuals and headaches
Why the occupation may matter: Blast and impact events occur in this occupation, though not in every career.
Records and clinical evidence: Documentation of the event, contemporaneous or post-event symptoms, and current neurological or neuropsychological findings evaluated under the DC 8045 facets.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
Respiratory +
Asthma, rhinitis, sinusitis, and PACT Act presumptive conditions
Why the occupation may matter: Relevant only where deployment location and dates place the veteran within a covered exposure period.
Records and clinical evidence: Deployment documentation establishing location and dates, current pulmonary testing, and a diagnosis matching the presumptive list where one applies.
Occupational history alone does not establish this diagnosis or its medical relationship to service.
06 / Exposure record
ILER and toxic exposure
For applicable exposure-related claims, VA may review the Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record (ILER) and a toxic exposure risk activity (TERA) memorandum along with deployment and occupational records. An ILER entry does not automatically establish exposure or service connection.
07 / After a decision
Why a 11B claim may still be denied
An exposure finding is not the same as a grant. These are examples from the researched guide, not predictions about a particular case.
VA may accept
A duty or event consistent with the service record
But may deny
A diagnosis, medical relationship, or rating element
Record to examine
Decision findings, service and private treatment records, examination rationale, and medical opinions.
Noise exposure conceded, service connection still denied for lack of nexus
This is the most common infantry denial. VA accepts that an 11B was exposed to hazardous noise, then relies on an audiologist's opinion that the current hearing loss is not related to service — often because entrance and separation audiograms both appeared normal. The Court has held that a normal separation audiogram does not by itself defeat a hearing-loss claim, so the quality of the examiner's rationale is usually the real issue.
No current diagnosis of the claimed joint condition
Pain alone was historically insufficient; a claim generally needs a diagnosed disability or, following Saunders v. Wilkie, pain that produces functional impairment. Claims describing symptoms without current clinical findings are routinely denied at this step.
The examiner leaned on an unremarkable separation examination
Many infantry soldiers did not report injuries to sick call. When an opinion rests mainly on the absence of in-service treatment and does not address the veteran's competent lay account of onset and continuity, the examination may be inadequate under Barr v. Nicholson.
Chronicity or continuity of symptoms not established
Long gaps between separation and first treatment invite a denial reasoning that the condition arose later. Lay statements, employer or family accounts, and early civilian treatment records address this directly.
Rating assigned does not match documented severity
Service connection is granted but the evaluation is based on a single range-of-motion measurement that does not capture flare-ups or repetitive-use loss, contrary to 38 CFR §§ 4.40, 4.45 and the Court's decision in Correia v. McDonald.
Exposure occurred, but the claimed disease is not linked to it
A deployment may be documented while the claimed condition is neither on the applicable presumptive list nor supported by a medical opinion connecting it to the specific exposure.
Oakridge Claims / Appeals Focused
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The important question is what VA accepted, what it rejected, and why. A decision review considers the decision, examinations, and the complete record — including private and VA records that may need development. Oakridge is appeals-focused — core work is post-decision, but initial and new claims are accepted on a case-by-case basis (no fee for pre-decision work).
Fees for eligible post-decision representation are governed by a written agreement. See fee details. No outcome is guaranteed.
11B questions
Does being an 11B automatically qualify me for tinnitus benefits?
No. Infantry service supports the in-service noise-exposure element, and VA's adjudication guidance treats infantry as a high-probability noise occupation. A grant still requires a current tinnitus diagnosis or competent report of persistent tinnitus and a medical link to service. VA can and does deny tinnitus claims where the audiologist attributes the tinnitus to another cause.
What if I never went to sick call for my knees or back?
That is common in infantry units and it is not automatically fatal to a claim. Your own account of when symptoms began is competent evidence, and buddy statements, evaluation bullets, profiles, and early post-service treatment records can fill the gap. An examination opinion that dismisses those accounts solely because sick call is silent may be inadequate.
Can VA deny hearing loss even after conceding I was exposed to weapons noise?
Yes. Exposure satisfies one element of service connection. VA also requires a current disability — for hearing loss, thresholds meeting 38 CFR § 3.385 — and a medical opinion linking the two. A denial after a conceded exposure usually turns on the nexus opinion or the audiometric thresholds, which is exactly what a post-decision review examines.
Does my MOS prove I was exposed to burn pits?
No. Burn-pit and other airborne-hazard exposure depends on where and when you served, not on your job code. Deployment orders, the DD-214 remarks, and unit records establish location and dates; the PACT Act presumptions then depend on those facts plus a listed condition.
I held several MOSs — which one matters?
All of them. The personnel record shows every MOS held and the dates, and the exposure argument can draw on any assignment. A later reclassification does not erase earlier infantry duty, and an earlier one does not limit a claim based on later work.
Can National Guard or Reserve infantry duty support service connection?
It can, but the duty status matters. Injuries incurred or aggravated during active duty for training generally qualify, while inactive duty for training is more limited — typically injuries, and certain cardiovascular events. Retirement points statements and orders establish the status of the period in question.
What records actually show what I did as an infantryman?
The DD-214 for the primary specialty, badges, and deployments; the enlisted record brief for every assignment; NCOERs for narrative descriptions of what the job involved day to day; profiles and sick-call entries for in-service limitations; and hearing-conservation audiograms for noise exposure.
Sources and legal references
- 38 CFR § 3.385 — Disability due to impaired hearing
- 38 CFR § 3.304(f) — PTSD service connection
- 38 CFR § 4.71a — Musculoskeletal rating schedule
- VA M21-1 Adjudication Procedures Manual (public knowledge base)
- VA — Airborne hazards and burn pit exposures
- VA — PACT Act and your benefits
- DoD Hearing Center of Excellence — noise and hearing conservation
General education only; not legal or medical advice. Oakridge Claims is a private business, not affiliated with or endorsed by VA. Nothing here establishes a representative-client relationship or guarantees a result. Free accredited VSO help is available.