Knoxville Focus, January, 2009
State Sen. Tim Burchett, Laura Comas, and State Sen. Doug Overbey with the first plate.
Tennessee honors women veterans with license plate Tennessee becomes one of the first states in the nation to honor women veterans with a license plate according to Laura Comas, a former U. S. Army Sergeant who began working on the effort more than three years ago. Although a number of veteran plates were available at the time, none specifically recognized the contribution of women. After being contacted by Comas, then state Rep. Doug Overbey (R-Maryville) and state Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) introduced legislation creating the specialty plate honoring women veterans and the bill was enacted in 2007.

“Women have been serving our country in the military since the Revolutionary War and in every conflict since,” said Comas, herself a Desert Storm veteran. “I am grateful to Sen. Burchett and Overbey for their interest and willingness to see to it that those women who have sacrificed for our state and nation are honored in this way.”

The plate, designed by Tom Walker, a military historian and graphic designer in the Knoxville area, depicts the image of Molly Pitcher, one of the first women acknowledged to have taken up arms in the Revolutionary War. Tennessee was the first state in the country to pass legislation commemorating women veterans with their own distinguishable plate. Kentucky previously allowed their state’s women veterans to purchase a red sticker designation applied over their existing veteran plates. West Virginia has also created a plate honoring women veterans.

The plates are available at each County Clerks Office across the state to any woman veteran with a DD214.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 5:11 am and is filed under In The News, Press Releases.
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