The state will begin issuing gold-star license plates for family members of servicemen and servicewomen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It?s an honor we don?t wish on any other families,” said Gary Swanson, father of Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Swanson, killed in Ramadi, Iraq, July 22, 2006, during his third tour of duty.
Swanson, of Rose Haven in southern Anne Arundel County, began looking into having the state make a license plate honoring the sacrifice of their immediate family members.
“My son believed in what he was doing,” Swanson told The Examiner.
Ninety Marylanders have died serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Families with members of the military serving in the war are entitled to display banners with a red border and a blue star centered on a white field.
If the service member dies in a combat zone, the family is entitled to display a similar banner with a gold star.
Del. Bob Costa, an Anne Arundel County Republican who represents the Swansons, had already drafted legislation to provide for a gold-star license plate for the families of fallen troops. But he said he found that Transportation Secretary John Porcari was willing to initiate the license plate on his own.
The new plate was unveiled Tuesday by Gov. Martin O?Malley at a State House ceremony that included a score of relatives of fallen Marylanders.
Among them was Michelle Murphy, of Randallstown, mother of Spc. Kendell Frederick, a native of Trinidad killed in October 2005 by a roadside bomb on his way to have his fingerprints taken to get hiscitizenship papers processed.
The new license plate “recognizes the sacrifice that my son has made,” Murphy said.
Frederick?s case led to legislation sponsored by Rep. Elijah Cummings and Sen. Barbara Mikulski that would require the Department of Defense to set up procedures to process the naturalization of the 40,000 noncitizens serving in the U.S. military.
The bill passed the House in a voice vote last month.
