A special license plate will soon be available for another group of Illinois veterans. State Representative Dan Swanson from Woodhull, a veteran himself, sponsored legislation to create a license plate for veterans of the Cold War that the governor signed into law earlier this month.
Swanson says any veteran who served between August 1945 and January 1992 may apply for the plate.
"I'll ask a veteran 'where'd you serve?' And they'll say 'well, I served but I wasn't in any type of war.' And I'll say, 'well, you were in a war, you were in the Cold War.' 22 million served during that Cold War period. Maybe it wasn't a battleground war but it certainly was a cold war against the Soviet Union."
Swanson says he wrote the legislation due to requests from Illinois veterans.
"It was brought to me by a consituent through another representative. Jonathan Carroll had been contacted by a consituent within his district, and had asked about a license plate, and now I've had several other constituents within my district come forward since I've had the legislation."
There is currently no timetable for when the Illinois Cold War license plates will be available.