In what Veterans Administration historians say is the longest case on record, the widow of  Harland D. Sanders, a colonel in the Kentucky  National Guard, lost again for the third time in her bid to obtain DIC benefits.  The claim is certifiably antique in VA terms and has been continuously prosecuted since his death in 1980. True to their promise to eradicate all claims older than two years, VA officials “certainly stepped up to the plate” on this one as  VA Under Secretary for Extraordinarily Rapid Claims Resolution  Allison  “Wonderland” Hickey put it. 

As some may recall, Col. Sanders divorced his wife of 69 years, Eunice,  in 1978. In what has graciously been described in the immediate family as a “winter/spring marriage”,  he wed his fourteen year old, fourth cousin once-removed, Dixie. Col. Sanders passed several years later of congestive heart failure and Ischemic Heart disease. Dixie has maintained to this day it was due to his service to our great nation and claimed she finally had the service medical records called STRs to prove it this time.

Mrs. Sanders and her attorneys have adroitly kept the claim alive and it has been appealed and remanded numerous times to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and even twice to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. In an effort to utilize the latest technology, her legal sleuths opted to use the the Disability Benefits Questionnaires, the online filing, and Ebenefits in order to submit a Fully Developed Claim. WLRO Channel 5 News reporters, their camera crew, and VA officials at the Louisville, Kentucky VA Regional Office were standing by to receive it when it came through the doors.  In what is reputed to be the wave of the future at the VA, they were able to rule on it in minutes.

Harland David Sanders
1890-1980
Colonel, Kentucky National Guard

The rapid resolution now sends the claim back into limbo. A VA official who wished to remain nameless at the Louisville RO said it would be several more years before it was certified and docketed at the Board of  Veterans Appeals in Washington, D.C. He wouldn’t comment on the merits of the claim but was overheard to say “He had more cooking oil than blood in him at his autopsy.  That dog won’t hunt.” Our AskNod correspondent, John Rambo, took that to mean Dixie didn’t have an ice cube’s chance in Hell of winning this claim.

Colonel Sanders was service connected for a back claim at 60 % as well as for tinnitus and hammer toe. The combined ratings entitled him to Total Disability due to Individual Employment (TDIU). He had claimed his employment in a sheltered work environment did not constitute meaningful employment but VA continued to deny his claims. Apparently he had a claim pending with the VA that had been filed by his Veterans Service Organization at the time of his demise. VA regulations permitted Dixie to file in his stead for his benefits. Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Bud “short round” Wiser  is proud of their initial work and claims that the battle isn’t over. At the ceremony at the VFW bar after the denial, Mrs. Sanders presented Mr. Wiser with a check for $10,000 to help defray the cost of  the champagne,  hors d’oeuvres and beautiful ice sculpture of Col. Sanders’ likeness.